Q+A Review – John Campbell reminds us what public broadcasting can do

Once I defended John Campbell’s journalism on TVNZ as ‘analysis’ and not ‘opinion’, every chump with a keyboard at any mainstream NZ media organisation immediately started bylining everything ‘Analysis’.

You are welcome NZ.

John Campbell is stepping in for Jack Tame and reminded everyone just how powerful Public Broadcasting can be.

John’s intelligence and intellectual curiosity is on top of decades as a journalist so when he asks questions of social policy it comes from a a place of true insight and oversight.

He is the perfect person to examine this terrible report into Abuse in State care.

In NZ we have angry Māori and Pacific youth causing crime in shops staffed by exploited migrant Indian and Chinese workers while the white middle class suburbs gasp in fear their local got hit in a ram raid.

It’s the suburbs rarely impacted by crime who fear it most and scream ‘something must be done’.

The mainstream media love crime stories because viewers react emotionally, that emotion has been manipulated by tough on crime politicians into ever increasing draconian counterproductive social policy.

The tragedy of how we’ve collectively allowed this get tough on crime mind set to infect justice, healing and redemption should shame us.

200 000 kids, we tortured them, sexually abused them and physically mistreated them.

80-90% of gang members were abused in state care.

Allow the magnitude of that mutilated social policy sink in.

Our ignorance at the interconnected nature of trauma has allowed us to have our anger to be manipulated into political vengeance that only serves to make things worse.

We are an emotionally stunted people, fixated on cow udders, rugby and hiding domestic violence, having the true obscenity of our ignorance exposed is a shell shocking moment, so cuddle that settler cracker get tough on crime redneck in your whanau because suddenly seeing the enormity of their shallow cultural illiteracy must be very hard for them.

Military boot camps don’t work, banning gang patches won’t work, 3 strikes won’t work.

Our focus must move away from making a guilty person suffer to healing them and giving them the opportunity of redemption.

The punishment is the imprisonment of their liberty, it isn’t to then make them suffer while imprisoned.

We are not focused on healing the victim or the perpetrator, we are only funding the suffering and calling that justice.

Our structural poverty and lack of community infrastructure to cope with that poverty is our wound that never heals.

This report into State Care changes everything.

John highlights that 34% of children are placed in Oranga Tamariki care without the full report into their whanau.

That is a staggering amount just as is the news that hundreds of social providers giving 24/7 parent support are all on the chopping block right now as this Government look to fund savings for their $2.9billion tax break for the richest landlords.

It is appalling that the system is so underfunded and weak that we then blame them for being abused!

The manner in which Social Investment will be used will see immediate uplifts as soon as the Big Data algorithm tell them to do it.

We will perpetuate the same loop of abuse.

The smiley face generated by OT calmly reassures all the providers about to be cut they won’t really be cut.

But they will.

 

I take nothing away from Jack Tame and his incisive journalism, but John Campbell on the show today reminded us all what a 7pm Current Affairs show on TVNZ should be.

Dump Seven Sharp, bring back John Campbell!