TV Review: Native Affairs – Devoy & Slick Willy Simon Bridges

Native Affairs once again lifts the bar on NZ current affairs.

Whatever initial jitters Mihingarangi Forbes had with taking over Maori TVs flagship current affairs role has simply disappeared. I have to rank her as one of the best in the game right now. She has the dignity and Mana of a seasoned broadcasting veteran with the sharp mind of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

Think of Judy Bailey with a semi-automatic machine gun and flamethrower in both hands.

There isn’t any force on earth that can drag me away from Game of Thrones, but with our new Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy and Simon Bridges who wants to criminalize protest, I had to watch. It was going to be a Game of Groans.

With huge live interviews like this lined up, most current affairs shows will attempt to stretch out the ratings potential by putting in filler stories to hold attention, luckily with a show as good as Native Affairs their filler stories would be a lead anywhere else.

The terrible story of two brothers who have been hideously injured in our defense force and thrown aside without any help was angering. If NZers are going to sign up to the Armed Forces and get hurt while serving, the least we can do as a country is look after them. We are not. I was shocked to find myself agreeing with Peter Dunne of all people and hope he does bring this up with the Government to demand compensation and Labour should be ashamed of how they dealt with the initial claim they turned down.

Then it was Susan Devoy. Her utterly underwhelming performance did nothing to put aside the building anger at her inappropriate appointment. Her demeanor was ‘woe is me’ for getting appointed and that she was surprised by the anger, which in itself suggests how out of touch with the sector she is.

She defended being ashamed of Waitangi Day by claiming that it was sad that so many people had a misunderstanding of the day, which seems churlish as her comments were contributing to that misunderstanding.

She kept pointing out how we should all just give her a chance to up skill, but for $200 000 I’d kinda like the Race Relations Commissioner to already be up skilled.

Susan defended criticisms about her desire to play in South Africa (as expressed in her own words in her biography) by saying that in the end she decided not to go to South Africa so that made it all okay, which is disingenuous in the extreme.

She decided (again in her own words from her biography) to not go, not because of an ethical disgust with the apartheid regime of South Africa, she decided not to go because it may have been detrimental to her career.

To point at that decision that she never went as proof that she is suited for Race Relations Commissioner is like saying ‘I didn’t kill that person because I feared I might have been caught, aren’t I the human rights defender’.

Just when you didn’t think this could become anymore of a train-wreck for Susan, she busts out ‘Nek minit’ as an answer in a serious interview discussing her appropriateness as Race Relations Commissioner.

$200 000 for a Race Relations Commissioner who uses ‘Nek Minit’ in an interview? I lost my country somewhere last night.

If you thought that was hilarious, Simon Bridges was a shocker. He is attempting to criminalize protest on the water, something that we as NZers have a deep place of pride and history with. He is going to allow the military to arrest citizens and his defense for not allowing the public to have any say on this?

Well he didn’t actually have any defense. His position that big oil companies have right too was the cheery on the top of his shit cake.

Defending the ‘right’s of big oil is about as low as it gets. There is a special place in hell for slick willies who pimp for big oil.

You can not pretend to have an understanding of current affairs in NZ if you are not watching Native Affairs.

They are the bench mark for journalistic excellence.