For the past two weeks, the Herald on Sunday has run what can only be described as a campaign of persecution against Minister of Social Development Paula Bennett, accusing her of... something on the basis of her family links to a convicted criminal. This is unseemly, unfair, and inhumane.
There is a longstanding convention in this country that politician's families are not for public consumption, and that they are not responsible to the electorate for the actions of their relatives. The Herald is pissing all over this. Politicians are however responsible for their own actions - so what has Bennett done? She has simply stood by a member of her family when they are in trouble, ensuring that they were not jailed unnecessarily before conviction, and supporting them at sentencing and to the parole board (as is required in our adversarial system). She has done this entirely as a private citizen, and has not abused her office in any way in doing so.
These actions cannot be considered morally blameworthy. Quite the opposite; they display compassion, humanity, and fairness - moral values distinctly lacking at the Herald. As for their fussing over potential "compromise", it simply does not hold water - what, do they think her son out-law's associates will beat policy out of her? Or are they merely trying to apply guilt-by-association at a rather tenuous three degrees of separation? If so, how many journalists are willing to be condemned by the actions of their brother's partner's friends? Bugger all, I imagine.
But the real context for this is the law and order auction and the associated dehumanisation of criminal offenders. According to the Herald, we should now hate "crims" so much that we should insist their families cut them dead the moment they are accused of any crime. Which shows that we're not just dehumanising "crims", but dehumanising ourselves. And that is too high a price to pay.
