Bennett spins to survival

Paula Bennett has again managed to dance around one of her blunders and keep her job. Her caucus, most notably the Prime Minster, have expressed their support for Bennett using bullying, and apparently John Key thinks it’s perfectly fine for a Minster of the Crown to ignore the Cabinet Manual and even break the law if it’s to silence critics of the National Party.

Despite Bennett’s insufferable spin, this was never about a “fair debate”. If it was, she would’ve also revealed how much money she received when she was on a benefit. If it was really about beneficiaries entering the public debate, Bennett would’ve revealed how much money she got from the government when she was a student activist. But the need for her imaginary “fair debate” doesn’t extend to openness from the Minister herself.

She’s revived the old National Party’s Muldoonist bullying of opponents, and that sets a dangerous precedent. How many poor people will be willing to criticise policies of the National-led Government when they know that if they piss-off Paula Bennett she’ll retaliate by spreading their personal information to the entire country?

One of Bennett’s worst excuses for her law-breaking bulling is that she “was open about it”. So what? Breaking the law openly is still breaking the law, and trying to stifle free speech through bullying and intimidation is wrong, regardless of whether she did so openly or leaked it. Wrong is wrong.

But the worst thing of all is how Bennett lit a firestorm against beneficiaries and now cries crocodile tears about the personal, often vicious attacks against the two beneficiaries (or even all beneficiaries). As an ex-beneficiary, she knows damn well the low opinion “middle New Zealand” has of beneficiaries, and she knows how easy it is to get people into a beneficiary-bashing frenzy. She’s directly responsible for every foul word spoken about these two women and beneficiaries generally.

It seems to me she knew exactly what she was doing. She intended to light the firestorm as a warning to others who might dare to criticise National. That’s disgusting, no matter how hard and fast she spins.

Update 02/08/09: Bennett says she’ll apologise to the two beneficiaries if the complaint to the privacy commissioner is upheld. According to the NZ Herald, one of the beneficiaries victimised by Bennett “has had her telephone lines disconnected, after threats and abuse on talkback, online message boards and blogs.” The paper also reported that “Other mothers who have written to the minister have told of fears they would be similarly outed.” All of which is evidence that Bennett’s goal—using bullying to suppress dissent and criticism of National-led Government policy—was successful.