I NEVER WENT BACK to Aramoana after the killing. I had been a frequent visitor to the tiny seaside village back in the late 1970s and throughout the 80s. Its tall cliffs and broad beaches providing a colourful backdrop to carefree summer days with friends and lovers. But after the carnage of November 1990 I just couldn’t face it. Something dark and savage had erupted from the shadows of Aramoana’s windswept pines; something that would always be there, waiting.
Ashburton offers an equally unlikely setting for yet another of New Zealand’s murder sprees. So quintessentially provincial a little town: with its tidy streets and well-kept parks; its sturdily conservative citizens. In Ashburton you can still catch a glimpse of New Zealand as it used to be. That place of bright and brittle friendships where, behind the post-war Kiwis’ welcoming smiles, lust and greed and violence seethed like a sack full of eels.
Always a little edgy, these places of multiple killings. Stan Graham’s West Coast: tightly corseted between the Alps and the Tasman Sea. David Gray’s Aramoana: lonely at the harbour’s mouth. Ashburton: beset on every side by the relentlessly level Canterbury Plains. New Zealand’s landscapes have a way of getting inside a man’s head. Sometimes the fit is just too tight.
We leave them alone, these men on their dark private journeys. There’s something about them that keeps us aloof – even when, as always happens at some point, usually towards the end of their tragic stories, they reach out to us for help. Like a drowning swimmer, flailing madly, we fear they will drag us down with them. Safer to keep our distance.
They make us angry, too, with their wayward rages, their unrealistic demands. The community’s patience is tested to breaking point: “That bloody man!”
And then comes the refusal. That last, infuriating and ultimately pointless gesture of defiance that inevitably sets in motion the relentless wheels of the law. Like when Stan Graham threatened his neighbour and the Police came for his guns. Those poor doomed coppers. Just doing their jobs. Gunned down like rabbits.
Fire purges and purifies the scenes of these tragedies, these crimes. Always. Something compels us to reach back into the deepest recesses of our social selves: to the very beginnings of our species; when the flames drove away the predatory beasts that lurked in the darkness and kept us safe ‘til morning.
Ashburton’s little WINZ Office will, of course, be closed. A new place will be found to conduct the business of our fraying welfare state. It will be a miniature fortress and there will be wariness and suspicion in the WINZ workers’ eyes. Fear will never be far away.
And one night the empty office will be torched. The Fire Brigade will stand alongside a gathering crowd and watch it burn. The flames will flare and the smoke will billow until, at length, the glowing embers fade and the ashes of Ashburton’s tragedy of 1 September 2014are borne away on the wind.
Another sad tragedy. Anecdotal evidence pays tribute to a kind w.i.n.z. worker. The future of the welfare state is as you say in tatters. I read the shooter has an unidentified skin disease which causes blisters and joint stiffening, most probably mental instability goes with it.
Well said Chris.
This is so very sad for all concerned – the victims of the shootings, and the shooter himself.
This all happened because a man who needed help, couldn’t get it, where he was supposed to get it.
Why?
Who chose not to help him.
Who said “No we won’t help you?”
When a person is driven to be homeless and destitution ensues, and all hope is lost, and survival mode kicks in – as a permanent ‘friend’, the mind is altered. The very state of existence, and the perception of life as an angry and ugly place dominates the thoughts.
All this man needed was help – but no one bothered to help him up and to keep on holding his hand til he was ready to let go.
Everyone who chose not to help this man is responsible for these deaths. Everyone who cast him aside, and everyone who knew his state of existance and chose to walk right on by. Everyone.
Look at our humanity, and our love for our neighbour. It is gone, almost like it is never to be seen again.
We are a sad society indeed, and I believe this kind of thing will just happen more and more, because of the hardness and harshness of many hearts.
God bless them all.
Opinion.
Well said Mystery. Our communities are being destroyed. People look out of their warm living rooms with fear. They lock the doors on their neighbours.
Hear hear MISTERY. I always enjoy your account on the issues and this one would have to be one of your best, as sad as the topic is.
I absolutely concur with your comments here. The man involved was obviously struggling with life, asking for help, yet his pleas of desperation were rejected by those who were in a position to assist him.
In such a tragic event as this, we as a society have to look at the whole picture and ask ourselves are we doing enough for society’s vulnerable?
The WINZ uncaring culture has grown into a vicious monster, reflecting the policies the ministry of social development and its minister, focused only on removing desperate Kiwis from their records as soon as possible, with little regard for their situation or need.
Therein lies the root of yesterday’s tragedy.
My son came home from work outraged and grieving at the tragedy of the homeless lonely desperate man living in a tent in freezing conditions ( especially the nights ) for weeks on end who could not get the help he needed to find a home …his compassion and outrage made me think that here was a good human being and I was gratified ( others would not be so compassionate)
….however the WINZ staff and their families also need compassion for their tragedy …they are caught in an impossible employment situation at the coal face… facing desperate New Zealanders, homeless , jobless, hungry , dislocated from family and support and dependent for help on the bureaucracy of WINZ…WINZ which is implementing the harsh policies of a monetarist uncaring Nactional government…and which sees the homeless as problems , objects and numbers to be countered
We must vote accordingly
You are right of course. A man driven by despair has gunned down three people, who simply had the bad luck to be employed in a WINZ office in Ashburton. It could have been almost any public servant anywhere in NZ.
But dont blame society, not because the charge is wrong, but because that is too easy. Ever since this government gained power it has chosen to demonise those who are down on their luck, just to pick up some cheap votes. Well, three innocent people have just picked up the tab.
What has emerged in the papers so far suggest that the accused killer was once a decent person, liked by those who knew him. By the time he decided he could take no more, he was sleeping in his car and being moved on by police because he was just a nuisance.
All his attempts to be heard by the system had failed. What happened next was a tragedy waiting to happen. If it had not been him, it would one day have been another. This is what happens when humans are branded as sub-humans. This government has blood on its hands.
Just imagine if that man had been offered a place to stay instead of being moved on. Do men who’re warm, fed, included, in stable care kill?
Yes, but less so than sick homeless desperate men who’re moved on because they make people uncomfortable.
We failed that man, we’ve failed WINZ, we’ve failed full stop.
Sue Bradford was slammed for ‘politicising’ this tragedy, and yet I cannot see this death as anything BUT political.
We’ve tried brutal profit uber alles capitalism and it’s not working. Let’s try compassion this time, eh?
It’s been a long time since I have made any comment on Whale Spew’s filthy site but tonight I took a peek to see what might be being said there. There it was, the article abusing Sue Bradford for her text, which likely came from a gut reaction.
I did it, I said it was nearly as bad as some asshole saying that a dead guy was a feral and the world was all the better without him. Last time I looked I’d been upvoted twice.
Great comments just read on Whale Oil now, good on you…
Those right wing bloggers don’t seem to like Sue Politicizing it. But now they are going full guns blazing politicizing it the other way round and using it against the left as a target.
Your right Empress this tragedy is anything but political. It was created by a society that really does not care for its most marginalized members. People need to understand this. Its very sad indeed.
I was also angry that people criticised Sue Bradford for basically telling it as it is. Everything we do and says is somehow “political”, but for some they will view anything as “politicising”, simply because they dislike the messenger. Shame on them, to do some moral lecturing, while the government and Minister lack morality, in various areas.
“Just imagine if that man had been offered a place to stay”
I don’t have to. Work and Income offered Tully places to stay several times. He refused the offers because he had his eye on a specific large family home.
Do you mean that empty housing NZ home?
Which pretty much proves he was not in a great state of mind, and should have been in some sort of care
Yes, a good point. They tell us all this stuff about WINZ staff getting “trained” to work with mental health sufferers, but the truth is far from it. They get very basic “training”, rather as to how to jump and push the red button, if someone gets “out of hand”.
And wait, they will reinforce “security”, so you will face scans, bag searches, and worse soon, to make you feel “welcome” to meet with your “case manager”, who is told to throw you off the benefit, as that is the way they deal with so many now.
Even sick and disabled are now told that “work” is the “best medicine”, I hear, and the guy, Tully in Ashburton, he “dared” to hold WINZ to account for what they are supposed to be there for.
Sadly the staff have their hands bound, have to be firm and tell people, hey, I cannot help you with that, to save the costs, as Bennett wants them to. For her to appear on TV tonight, bleating on about how her staff did offer the guy “all the help” that he was entitled to, that is a disgusting LIE.
How come he was homeless then? And if he had mental health issues, which seems rather apparent, why did they just “sort it” with trespassing him, and not referring him to an agency for proper support?
I see a line of failures of agencies involved, but as usual, they are all covering each other, are stonewalling, and put all blame on the guy who lost it, and did this terrible shooting.
What a disgrace this country has become, I dare to say.
And how many more will follow, as people at wits end finally reach rock bottom, and their anger and frustration overcomes social restraints… A man or woman with nothing else left to lose.
Just a note that that atavistic tradition of burning down the scene of crimes sometimes thwarts justice, as in the torching of Robin Bain’s house.
But more on topic, I hope the PSA are going to get together a collection for the friends and family of the deceased; and use this tragedy to argue harder for a “conscience” exemption for frontline staff asked to impose inhuman policies on the fragile.
On TV3 news they interviewed the owner/manager of the local holiday park as Tulley had apparently spent a little time there.
At the end of the interview this guy said Tulley was a mental case and should have stayed in Australia.
That about said it all for me about this country’s attitude to people who are struggling with life.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish to diminish the awfulness of this, but clearly there was nothing available for this guy. He probably needed to be in the mental health system, but lets face it, there barely is one now.
If he’d broken his leg, or been diagnosed with cancer he would have been getting taken care of, but help with something chronic, such as he seemed to have had, and mental health issues just seem to be woefully inadequate
Yes Raegun.
And he probably wouldn’t have been a “mental Case” if he had got the help he needed when he needed it, and those 2 people would still be alive today.
That man from the motor camp said he stayed 2 days, as if he had helped him. Thats not help – 2 days at a motor camp, knowing it is only 2 days. Wow, you can have a shower 2 days in a row.
WINZ gave me 2 days at a motor camp when I was homeless too. But what to do at the end of those 2 days? WINZ knew I was homeless. Attempt suicide was my answer. All hope was gone.
Then mental health became involved, and they gave me pills and another 2 days accommodation at a mental health day care facility in another community – at least I got to eat something there for 2 days.
They knew that when I left there I would be going back out to homelessness. Knowing that they all knew this just made everything worse. You get to understand (know) that nobody actually cares, and feel as if they (WINZ) do want you to commit suicide or die anywhich way you can, so they can be rid of you.
It is exceptionally embarrassing to be a homeless person.
Im good now, but not because of WINZ or mental health services at that time. This was a long while ago now. But this incident in Ashburton is definitely a trigger, and I expect it will be a trigger for many homeless and former homeless and hopeless people, and there are more of them now.
It is sad that people were killed by a desperate and ‘lost-all-hope’ man. He should never have been put into his hopelessness.
This is a sad indictment on WINZ and Ashburton as a community, and of course our govt, that this man driven to such anger and frustration, had temporary insanity that caused him to kill those who failed him. A very sad and shameful situation that need never have happened.
It is easy for those at the top of the ladder of MSD and WINZ to hand down the instructions to the next one on the ladder – but the WINZ workers – the case managers, have no one to pass it on to – they just feel as if they have to implement the harsh policies from above – they have families to fed and rent or mortgages to pay. But actually they don’t have to. They can stand up for the hopeless.
I wish they would tell their bosses “NO! Enough! I am going to whistleblow on the lot of you! And most of all, I am going to say ‘YES’ to people who so very obviously need our help!”
I wonder if this will happen now.
Opinion.
yes it is a very sad tragedy. All he wanted was a warm place to stay and no one was able to help.
There are so many out there that are affected by the changes in the welfare system of which the government or ministry of social development is choosing not to acknowledge and yes some are close to breaking point.
I feel really sad for the work and income staff because they are the face of the new law changes. They, just like the rest of us need to work and because of who there employer is have to do what they are told to do.
It sounded like he did go through some people in positions but still did not get the help he needed. On the news someone mention that he went to Australia to find work then came back home. Dreams and hopes all dashed and the last thought that he had before this happens “What have I got left to loose” his dignity gone, he was reduced to nothing.
Try living on $174.00 dollars a week, no warm home and it has been a cold cold winter. I feel sad for all concerned, the man, the families of the winz workers.
sad day for all,homeless man kills 2 in cold blood, injuries another, police raid vacant state home in search of this man
irony in that
I don’t think we can say if we had a more caring system that this wouldn’t have happened. Some people are very hard to help when all the support is there for them. I think it would ease people’s hearts though if we knew we had a system that was doing its best for people struggling in life. We just haven’t got that right now, and this is a blatant reminder.
A lot of times it is not others that the people that seek help hurt but sadly it is themselves. Sadly they see no other alternative but to choose to end their own lives…sadly for all of us
I also bet Greg O’Conner says this shows people have guns so let’s arm the police
Back in the late 90s as I moved Far North for what proved 20 years it did not start well. At seaside village Mangonui a drifter from the South with mental problems was moved on from his sleeping place by the local cop, next morning the young passengers of the school bus saw him hanging dead from a tree in a reserve strip.
WINZ, ACC, IRD, and NZ Police are all ‘services’ to avoid for the fragile if at all possible these days. The climate of fear and loathing towards beneficiaries created since 1991 consistently sees more unemployed reported in the Household Labour Force Survey than those in receipt of the miserable job seeker support payment they should be getting. Why this discrepancy? Because social security that provided Jon Key’s mother a widows benefit is now a sadistic punishment machine.
True about avoiding these departments. There was a rare article in Sunday’s Herald about a man who killed himself after being hounded viciously by the IRD for child support – they refused to believe he had lost his high paying job and kept piling on the penalties. The topic is rarely mentioned but hounding by the IRD for manufactured debt is a common factor in male suicide and a number of murders I believe. WINZ are pretty bad but IRD – and the brutal child support system – are much much worse.
?Always to many question?
What villainy we have chosen to live with, what hatred have we let rule this land, what fear have we let in, to let desperate acts of violence be the final word of life.
Can we not show compassion, can we not know our neighbors, can we no longer feel love for our brothers and sisters.
Age of rich for rich, dam those who suffer, wallow in the troof of cheap material things.
Mine is the sorry, yours is the loss, ours is worse for it.
He came home to die.
We wouldn’t support him to do that in dignity.
What kind of country, what kind of people are we?
@ Chris Trotter . Did you know Colin Simpson ? He was a friend and fantastic photographer . RIP Collin . Collin photographed Aramoana by way of preventing some swindler from building a smelter there .
Dehumanising the human is fraught with danger . bennett ? This blood is on your fat , hypocritical hands .
A lonely , more than likely manic depressive man with a gun in Ashburton ? Trying to glean some kind of humanity from WINZ staff ? In Ashburton ??? Jenny Shipley town ? It’s a script for gunplay . Have you seen the Ashburton morons vomiting up their reactionary response ? ” He shoulda stayed in Australia ” ?
If society thinks it’s ok to dehumanise humans ? This shit is what you get .
Why not give the shooter what he wanted ? A house ? Psychiatric treatment ? Love ? Understanding ? His pride back . Valium ? E ? LSD ? A funny video ? A nice cup of fucking tea ?
What did he get instead ? A fucking gun and bullets ? Jesus Christ ! Here comes America/Israel . Fuck yeah ! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/
I DARE you to not moderate this out…
?
Well Frank, you may very well put a ? there regarding my comment that seems odd…because the mods removed the first part of the commentary. This is the 3rd time I’ve tried to post on this subject but, even though I’m a social liberal, the Left hates dissent. Hell…I might even swallow a dead rat and post on WOBH. At least they’ll post my view.
My view? That sometimes people do this kind of thing because they are plain…mad. Not “angry” mad….plain old batshit mad.
This person was offered all the help that every agency could find. He was offered accommodation. But he was mad. Scary mad. He was ejected from a flat because he was scary mad. He was reported to the police dozens of times when tenting because he acted so scary mad, he concerned so many people.
This was not policy at work…this was not someone being denied their entitlement at work…
This was plain bad and mad at work.
@Steveo:
What exactly are the specifics of his “scarey mad” that you speak of?
And what were the accommodations he was offered?
And if all service were looking after him, then does this include Mental Health services?
This morning’s paper (dom I think) has a quote from the guy’s ex flatmate that tends to back up SteveO’s suggestion.
So one former flatmate knows it all? What or who tells you, the flatmate may not be “mad”?
@Steveo:
I reckon that’s a big load of bunkum you are saying there.
And the proof is in the fact, that he had no home and was living in a tent on the riverbank in winter; he was ill and had come home to die; he eventually had mental health issues that caused him to get and use a gun and bullets to kill two people and injure another.
I don’t see any entitlements at all here.
You are just trying to make out that WINZ are all fine and dandy – but they definitely are not! In fact 2 of their staff are dead because they are not fine and dandy!
Also, you can see that Tully has already been spoken of as a nice person who never caused any aggro. And you know what – not everyone gets on with their flatmate – so obviously Tully did the right thing and moved out.
This is all about the WINZ staff and the way they treat their ‘clients’ – and the consequences of the sick social ‘policies’ of MSD and WINZ that they adhere to – which is the reality here.
The sadness of our culture – Ouch!
Opinion and belief.
Well, what a shocking day, what a shocking incident, at first I heard it on the news earlier today, and found it hard to believe.
But I also thought about what has over recent years happened under this government, and I mean “reforms” here and there, especially in welfare, and also ACC, where people are increasingly denied what they need, and are expected to jump through ever higher held and more hoops.
And we have a dishonest government, talking so much about “helping” and supporting, when in reality they are capping and cutting expenditure and services, not only in welfare, but also in health, particularly mental health.
I read this the other day, and some interesting, revealing comments have been added to it. We need to look at mental health care and expenditure, as it is too neglected:
http://publicaddress.net/speaker/election-2014-mental-health-policies/
I express my condolences to the families, friends and workmates of the victims in this horrific incident down South.
The system is not working, and workers at the front-line are being put at risk by an irresponsible government and Minister.
I wouldn’t trust anyone who burns down the building. They are projecting their own negative unconscious self on to the scene of the crime. Greater self knowledge is better than thinking you can ward off evil by committing a crime yourself.
I note Sue Bradford was hammered for “politicising” this but political its become and now the arse covering has started.
Firstly with Duncan Garner last night the National MP for Ashburton, Jo Goodhew, didn’t want to discuss the fact this man had gone to her or her “office” seeking help. She batted it off “Oh Duncan (multiple times) I don’t really want to talk about that now” with wanting to be supportive of her community. I think if Winston Peters had not raised the fact he had been approached by this man this would have remained hidden.
Paula Bennett is now claiming the gun man rejected help from WINZ but its hard to see how deep that ran as he was trespassed. Trespass orders last 2 years so its hard to see what help was going to be forthcoming.
Some WINZ spokesman was saying this morning was more or less saying their security was quite acceptable but now the inevitable review has begun.
Having worked in a far less negative environment than WINZ and supposedly non confrontational but one that deals with the public I can say quite forthrightly that when staff are abused or assaulted management put their heads in the sand and become impotent. Staff give up reporting what should be reported because of this or comments like “if you don’t like it leave” so statistics never represent the true picture and then management can gleefully claim everything has been fine.
WINZ staff whom I assume are not particularly well paid are at the pointy end of government policy and they are paying for it, now in the worst possible sense.
These murders cannot be viewed in isolation and like or not its very political.
The media reported tonight, in all “innocence”, one of the dead WINZ staff members enjoyed “breeding Rottweilers”, this is NO joke!
Now I do not know many people that keep Rottweilers, and some may do so for genuine “love” of the animals, but given past repeated reports on dog attacks, and how certain breeds were discouraged in New Zealand, I am stunned, that some still “love” Rottweilers, one of the most popular, and most aggressive fighter dogs there are.
That tells me a bit about Ashburton, that “close knit”, “caring” town.
Forgive me to comment this, but we need more balance than the crap media present to us, same as Bennett and her mercenaries.
I still feel sorry for the victims, and condolences must go to their families and friends.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11317527
“As the small Mid Canterbury town of Ashburton comes to grips with yesterday’s horror shooting, locals are turning their attention to planning memorials to honour the slain.”
With respect, but then:
“Ms Cleveland never married or had children, but had two rottweiler dogs who filled her life, friends and family said. She grew up in Alexandra with two brothers and a sister. Her mother Kathleen Cleveland said it was hard to think straight after receiving the news of her daughter’s death yesterday. She said that when her daughter was growing up she was interested in horses and had a pony at home. She later worked with horses as a teenager.
Ms Cleveland said her daughter had been a member of dog clubs for 30 years, and was interested in cocker spaniels before she developed a passion for rottweilers, of which she had two at home.”
“She never married or anything like that, so that has sort of been her life,” her mother said.
Sad story, and yes, maybe I am wrong, but I do not quite understand why people love Rottweilers, perhaps they are nice dogs after all?
Bennet has said this man Tully has received all entitlemens due him. She would say that, even tho receiving no entitlements she can claim he was getting all due him. Then she goes on to say he was on a benefit and expands that by adding he was on it “for a long time.
Forgot to add he was trespassed from the winz office. So how could he get help
when he has been banned? .
Also you try and get help from winz without an address. You can’t. You certainly won’t be receiving any benefit. Bennet is telling lies when she makes out the assistance this man got.
Yes Robert Millar.
I can confirm that you have to have an address otherwise WINZ refuse to help.
Well he has an address now.
Opinion and belief.
An absolute tragedy for all concerned. My understanding is that WINZ premises, certainly in the larger centres, have numerous taxpayer-funded private security personal in attendance. I’m sure that a small office would at least have one. Where was he/she? Is it not their purpose to prevent people wearing balaclavas from entering? Surely at the very least security could have prevented this person from leaving after the weapon was discharged, thereby avoiding further potential bloodshed.
I am an articulate, mature woman who worked for many years running the office of a family owned business and yet as an under 65 yr old, gave up on WINZ when claiming under my husbands retirement pension. I can see why people get so desperate. I grew up in Port Chalmers, knew some of those in the Aramoana tragedy and it still causes me great sadness. It is no longer the place I knew and I feel uncomfortable going back there. I would also feel most uncomfortable if I was forced tk deal with WINZ again, and that stops me applying for any disability allowance on behalf of my husband who is a Parkinsons sufferer. This is surely wrong. What chance did this poor chap have? Not much, a sign of absolute desperation, and he probably did not mean to shoot, only threaten.
WINZ is a BRUTAL REGIME now, and I have enough sources to prove it. They may appear “fair’ to some, who only need their help for a short time, same as ACC, but when you become a longer term “liability”, they soon enough put the pressure on people.
And I suspect that is behind this case, nothing else. As WiNZ operate, when anybody steps out of line, they come down on the person even more heavily than before, and crush you. So Tully faced the situation returned to his “hometown”, with no family, no friends, and ALL seemed to turn against him.
On Radio Live I heard the Ashburton Guardian editor or manager comment this afternoon, saying there was nothing he heard of Tully being aggro or so, he was normal and decent, by the sounds of it. He put up with heaps, tried to reach out his way, but nobody listened and fobbed him off. So he set up tent in the Ashburton Domain, and apparently 25 complaints by the “decent” people of Ashburton were made about him.
He was supposedly treated normally and “supported” by WINZ staff, and only last week trespassed as he got angry. Now media put that into the forefront, as if it is all just about an “angry man” with some “hate agenda” to kill.
How damned sick I am of rural New Zealand, and I have lived there, and know what I am talking about. They stick together, shut persons out if they get a bit “stroppy” or difficult, and shun them. When it goes wrong, the culprit is the “evil one”, full stop, and all others are “law abiding” and “decent” and “hard working” citizens.
Sad this story is, as it shows the ugliest side of this country.
Tully is an alleged murderer, will face trial, will spend the rest of his days in prison, possibly mental health units after that. All others move on, especially heads of departments and Ministries, washing their hands, as they did all right and well while following welfare “reforms” that treat every one on benefit as a burden, a bludger, a cheat and potential criminal.
Thank you, Paula Bennett, I lost a bit more respect for you today for your sanctimonious crap in front of TV cameras. You must go, same as “Crusher Collins”.
A MUST LISTEN TO, re MENTAL HEALTH, and this is important, also re this horrible incident at Ashburton:
Mental Health services are struggling, are getting services cut and capped, and no wonder, we have people fall through the cracks and crack up. Welcome to for once, one good Nine to Noon program on Radio NZ National, with Kathryn Ryan:
“Community mental health providers under pressure”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/20148046/community-mental-health-providers-under-pressure
Why does the damned MSM not pick up more of this kind of stories, to tell us what goes on, and what does not go on, leading to the dismal chaos we have in welfare, health and more?
Wake up, dear MSM, and do some damned research, and report on what matters, in this matter Radio NZ did well.
Several times a month I drive past the old Kimberley centre in Levin, now abandoned and crumbling, and wonder where all the residents are now. Society apparently has decided that they are better off out in the community well I would argue that sure that would suit some of them but many would be better in a stable supervised environment.
I would suggest that the decision to close residential care, mental health and drug rehabilitation facilities was made not by society but by accountants worried about the bottom line and who probably see the odd shooting as something that occurs off the balance sheet and is therefore not their problem.
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