MEDIAWATCH: The appalling rehabilitation of Paula Benefit
The reinvention of Paula Bennett: Private wealth, a new podcast and the art of the ‘no comment’
Paula Bennett’s new podcast with the Herald, which launches today, is called Ask Me Anything, but when Kim Knight sits down with the former politician, she discovers some things are still off-limits – even for a self-confessed oversharer.
There has been a real attempt to sanitise Paula Bennett’s legacy, be it kind columns talking about how hard it was for her as a woman, to dancing with Tom Sainsbury, to Gives us a Clue with Hillary, to her new podcast.
In response to this attempt to whitewash her legacy, here is one image that sums up the true spite and maliciousness of her as a politician…
…Paula knew the meth testing policy was flawed. She was told and Housing NZ were told that they were mis-interpreting their own policy, Housing NZ even admitted that they knew they were misinterpreting it and yet, they willingly used meth as a clickbait weapon to demonise state tenants while they were privatising State Housing.
Paula needlessly blew $120million on decontamination that was never a health risk, she threw hundreds of state tenants onto the streets in the middle of a homelessness crisis, billed them hundreds of thousands in costs through corrupt tenancy tribunals and banned them from re-entering State Houses.
She can dance with as many comedians as she likes, nothing cleanses the pure spite of her as a politician.
Her draconian attacks on welfare recipients was only possible because she herself had been a solo mother.
Paula was the ultimate political poacher turned game keeper.
She could push welfare eugenics because she could always cite her own experience as some sort of justification.
She released personal information to shame beneficiary critics and put into place a sanction regime that saw thousands go hungry.
Her ruthlessness masquerading as ‘I know best’ damaged NZs poor, she didn’t alleviate it.
That she has now been whitewashed by TVNZ and Stuff is remarkable while I am still banned for life from RNZ is eye rolling.
You are allowed back into the fold after needlessly blowing $120million on false meth contamination and throwing hundreds onto the street in the middle of a homelessness crisis, but defame John Key and you are blacklisted for life???
Glad we got that clear.
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Shhh, don’t blame John Key, coward Kraut will need hospitalisation.
As mentioned in other posts, Bennett was/is appalling and both the picture of her and Whale Oil and Brian Edwards. How the National Party New Zealand Herald endorses such garbage prove how biased our right wing media is. Bridges Stuff podcast and Bennett’s Herald podcast.
Bert ok, then let’s blame Bill English. It was Paula’s self-confessed love affair with Bill English’s brain which appeared to prompt her to get her stomach closed, being apparently unable to ever control what goes in and out of her mouth, being, I surmise, another grad of the dreadful Uni of Waikato which is out to wreck the more civilised world, but her getting her hair chopped to resemble Mike Hosking facing a firing squad shows that at least she is able to laugh at herself, and between you and me I always thought that John and Bill elevated her because she was an easy sort of thing for a couple of nitwits to be able to feel superior to. They needed that dynamic, being what they were, and there may be a dirty great load of unwashed Aucklanders out there with that same sad wee need. You gotta laugh.
Haha, brilliant Snow White!
LOl – so its not just me who thinks her new hair is freakish! Channelling Will Smith on Fresh Prince, why????.
Pullya Benefit remains one of the worst Natzos because she took obvious sadistic pleasure in her work of putting the slipper into vulnerable people.
The story was that when she first became a minister she was not given full papers, but bullet point summaries. Then she was mentored by arch neoliberal, Paula Rebstock and sent off to the USA to see how to really wage war on the poor.
She leaked bollocks about Te Puea Marae CEO, who was then a serving senior Police Officer, because they were housing the homeless! What an awful thing to do from a tory point of view–they were embarrassed during the widespread knowledge amongst NZers of the true extent of living in cars etc. She then blamed her “office” for the leak–typical tory “it wasn’t meeeeee” behaviour.
Some of her old Taupo party mates were starting to out her on social media, and did the lawyers and threats appear with speed!
She needs to be called out consistently, because to remain silent is to condone her actions.
That photo sums up everything that National needs to flush down the toilet as a party. Mean, stupid people who have either no business being in parliament or slimy individuals who are just best summed up as pieces of crap. They were both happy to ruin peoples lives to suit their agendas.
Self interested Paula, neoliberals friend! Neoliberals hate the ones who actually want to help people.
For all of Paula’s slights. Poverty, drug use, crime, inequality and beneficiary numbers are far worse now than under her watch.
Labour going to own that?
Are they really though or is it that those issues are simply better measured now?
Bennett was never ever held accountable for anything because her failures weren’t measured. Hasten to add nothing unusual for Mickeyboyle to find fault at Labours feet.
She was at the forefront at blocking drug reform during the cannabis referendum. She was National’s rally cry for no, and all National supporters better tow the line, no free choice here thank you. Parading smoke screens at parliament like daily weight rules to get the massives ramped up over non-issues.
Well said Martyn. Awful Person, with image makeover. In Oscar Wilde – Dorian Gray territory. Gives women/female a bad name.
I can never understand why people who are already dragging in a huge amount of money then partake in that junk that she is on i.e. Hilary Barry.
Bennett is a really really nasty person.
Sepuloni – as someone has already said incompetent and capture by her ministry, put there because she is brown.
Michael. “… put there because she is brown “. Precisely. This is the problem with “diversity “, and it means that the best person doesn’t always get the job. In this case it is a tragedy for children, and it still doesn’t explain why Sepuloni has closed her blinged-out ears to expert opinion and the voices of reason in her grim determination to annihilate their Commissioner. Labour supporting this is just as bad as Bennett.
I was really looking forward to not seeing or hearing about the nauseating Pullya Benefit for at least another two decades. Now she’s allegedly a celebrity…haha. Only in NZ.
Paula speaks to the dark side of the human psyche, another selfish, uncouth, narcissistic bully who sees the world as theirs for the taking. Nothing but a greedy conman, and every inch gluttonous trash. She should never have been allowed near the public sector because this service requires one to possess empathy and understanding. And to think her ego thought government office was her calling, for starters you need vision. She is probably personally responsible for the demise of National as a valid political party and has definitely set the country back 30 years with her brand of ugly. Stick to what you know Paula, that cheap brand of Auckland which continues to peddle this worthless mashup of reality TV, comedy, journalism and politics to the rest of us.
Sums up NZ today – Why shouldnt Paula Bennett extend her 60 mins of fame and profit off it? Tony Veitch and others have done it for some years now.
About the Bill Clinton era we accepted as a world that it was tolerant and appropriate to accept that those who lead us could be morally flawed and still lead us so it’s not surprising that in the following years, we began to see more and more people commit anything up to heinous acts, do their six months in Siberia and then re-emerge with a suitable Mea Culpa and then go on to profit even more.
Funnily enough, its ok for woke NZ Middle Class (and make no mistake, Bennett is middle class) to be perpetually lauded as long as they dont cross any woke bottom lines. Otherwise your very name will be cancelled out of existence as Rachel Stewart found after working on ‘Milked’?
Bennet is a horrible creature….Key liked her because under her tenure State Housing made multi million dollar…profits!
Paula speaks to the dark side of the human psyche, that selfish, uncouth, narcissistic bully side which sees the world as theirs for the taking. Nothing but a greedy conman here, and every inch gluttonous trash. She should never have been allowed near the public sector because this service requires one to possess empathy and understanding. And to think her ego thought government office was her calling; for starters you need vision. She is probably personally responsible for the demise of National as a valid political party and has definitely set the country back 30 years with her brand of ugly. Stick to what you know Paula, that cheap brand of Auckland which continues to peddle this worthless mashup of reality TV, comedy, journalism and politics to the rest of us.
Bring me a bucket.