Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, October 29th, 2008 - 64 comments
Categories: bill english, im/migration -
Tags: bill english, lockwood smith, maurice williamson
Oh dear. In the same week Lockwood Smith made his racist remarks and Maurice Williamson committed the gaffe of talking openly about National Party policy, it appears Bill English pulled a wee Lockwood of his own.
According to the Ashburton Guardian, English complained to a local Greypower meeting about the Filipino ‘invasion’ in his home town of Dipton and talked about the plight of a poor farmer ‘whose sole Kiwi worker was arrested before he started his first milking shift’.
The issue of migrant workers from the Phillipines is a contentious topic in Southland, with the Sunday Star Times recently reporting that migrant workers have been abused, isolated and ignored by the mono-cultural locals.
Comments like this from Bill English, their local MP, are unhelpful to say the least.
[Source: Ashburton Guardian, 21/10/08. Hat tip: S McGee.]
UPDATE: Sounds like Bill actually said ‘infusion’ rather than ‘invasion’ and was misquoted by the Ashburton Guardian. Good to hear.
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You’d think being Catholic Bill wouldn’t mind so much with the Philippines being mostly Catholic.
The only word you can use within that whole piece to prove your point is “invasion”. And your evidence is not even a quote, rather a pretty unreliable paraphrase of what he said.
But of course, we’ll get the usual diotribe about how much of a racist “bigot” Bill English is and all those other filthy nats.
Stay positive guys.
an asian invasion in dipton? I’ve been to (or should i say through) Dipton – there’s like 10 or 20 houses there if that. I wonder what counts as an invasion – 10 people? 3 or 4 families?
If you can’t understand the inherent racism in Bill’s English’s comments Sarah, then that really is your problem. Not that your limited powers of perception are surprising considering your sympathies.
btw, the word is “diatribe”.
you stay positive too Sarah, you’ll need all the polly-annaism you can muster in the next few weeks.
Sarah. Oh dear. Someone hit a nerve there methinks?
Everyone with half a brain knows Bill is a borderline bogan in a tailored suit and you don’t like to be reminded that some of us are hip to his bs do you?
Does the article make any sense out of the “arrested before he could begin his first shift”? Does this mean English thinks people should never be arrested? Or that the filipinos got the guy arrested? Or that being long-term unemployed is a crime where English comes from? Or that the sub-editor wasn’t on the ball?
For that matter, if there’s a labour shortage what’s with the long-term unemployment?
And, for another matter, if they have no staff what’s wrong with importing them? Shouldn’t it be a rescue squad not an invasion?
I am counting my blessings that I don’t have to read regional papers any more
the sprout – the whole newspaper piece is so inconclusive that I don’t believe anyone can actually make a judgment from it.
This is not about politics. The source doesn’t even have a quote, rather a weak paraphrase. And the whole thing doesn’t make make sense (Re: Anita’s comment). If you’re going to call Bill a racist, then you need much more substantial evidence than the paraphrase of some dodgy regional paper.
Anita – I’d have thought that the kiwi being arrested before his first shift was a pro-Filipino comment – it seems they are truning up to work and making us natives look bad in comparison!
Sarah, if ‘invastion’ isn’t quite enough to open your second eye, what is? Would English have to say there was a “stampede of filthy [insert country here] scum” before you decided that he was perhaps a touch off, but still nothing really wrong?
‘invastion’. D’oh.
cap ‘the archbish’ – down wit da kidz.
Sarah’s right. We have no idea whether Bill English referred to it as an “invasion” or whether the journalist paraphrased him. He might have used influx or a similar word.
Journalists often like to make comments more exciting than they are by showing off their knowledge of the English language.
fair enough Sarah, i withdraw and apologise.
Helen is keen on process even with dealing with serial liars
I notice that no quotes are used so at this stage we don’t know if indeed he said it.
Actually, Tane, what does the following mean:
appears Bill English pulled wee a Lockwood of his own
Which reminds me of Cullen’s comment about Lockwood – “the member can’t have it both ways … well, perhaps HE can!!”
Oops – apologies for repeating some – i was writing my comments a lot slower than sarah!
Um, that he appeared to make potentially racially inflammatory comments, but obviously not on the scale of Lockwood. Hence the ‘wee’.
Sarah,
At the absolute best English was politically foolish to let himself be associated with “an invasion of Filipinos in his home town”.
At a (very likely) second best he has unthinkingly played into the hands of racists and provided fuel to existing racial tensions within his home community.
At an (also pretty likely) third best he has revealed some of the unconscious deeply seated racism that most of us have when we see people who don’t look like the kind of people we expect in our towns.
A much less likely scenario is that he was consciously expressing racist sentiments to inflame existing tensions and boost his vote.
I’ll go for
Deputy leader of the opposition says something politically foolish and potentially deepens existing racial tensions and racist behaviour three weeks out from the election.
Not the beginning of the apocalypse, but not a sign of political or electoral competence, let alone the kind of behaviour we’d like to see in a potential deputy PM.
Somone just needs to give him a muffler. He’s ruining all of Key’s good work.
But the impact of this will be very little so I suppose it doesn’t matter. I personally can’t stand Bill, but John had to appease the real righties of the party.
hmmm perhaps not naming the ethnicity would of help.
Question Scribe, is this showing to Mr English before publishing? Usually? It should be? So they are not taken out of context??
“I notice that no quotes are used so at this stage we don’t know if indeed he said it.”
‘Mr English said…’ – does that count as a quote?
Or perhaps he was talking about australia? National has made so many gaffs such as this one that we are all getting far to used to the ‘gaff followed by lame excuse’ cycle.
There’s nothing racist at all in this. Weak Tane. Very weak.
Tim Ellis,
Can you see the “foolish” tho?
Tane – if you we being a little troublesome, you could read it as “English pulled wee Lockwood” which gives it a completely different context!
[Tane: Hmm, that's unfortunate. Typo fixed.]
I agree with Anita that even a charitable interpretation leans toward a suggestion that English did not excercise very edifying political judgement on this.
aghhh showing – should be shown
Lampie,
Question Scribe, is this showing to Mr English before publishing? Usually? It should be? So they are not taken out of context??
Any newspaper worth its salt wouldn’t show stories to people beforehand, unless they have real reservations from a legal perspective.
forgetaboutthelastone,
No, that’s called paraphrasing. If he actually said invasion, which is possible, the line — from a journalistic standpoint — should have been Mr English said there has been an “invasion” of Filipinos….
No I can’t, Anita. Nothing foolish at all. English was describing a real phenomenon of major labour shortages in the rural community, which is being supplanted by Asian labour. There is nothing that English said that is derogatory towards Asian people.
so is there a flippin invasion of dipsticks or not?
The only person using the race card here is the author of this garbage.
Still I suppose it IS a distraction when your leader is up to her neck regarding her knowledge of the donation for consul scandal.
Funny how posters above take exception to Bill’s comments being paraphrased to make a point. Have you noticed how often paraphrasing is used to blacken Helen’s name :Sean against Winston today or Guyon or Bill Ralston or John Key? It is a blunt way of joining dots to make a case that is not even there.
So Bill’s comments: Would a non-racist person name the racial group or just talk about the difficulty in finding the workers? Filipinos have small hands and should make good workers.
I wonder how long it will take for the Nat party HQ to lean on the A G and get a retraction.
“There is nothing that English said that is derogatory towards Asian people.”
Mmm, “Asian Invasion”, for an example, has never even been suggested as being bad. Or are you being an Authority on What Was Said, Tim?
“Any newspaper worth its salt wouldn’t show stories to people beforehand, unless they have real reservations from a legal perspective.”
cheers, thought perhaps local might be different.
Scribe,
I’m assuming that if the AG had been unsure of what English did, in fact, say they would have checked with him (what he said, not the whole article). Checking you’re attributing the right quotes and/or sentiment is normal I would hope
Scribe – what you are calling paraphrasing is purly semantics. Its pretty obvious to the layman (me) what he meant in general. Just another faux par from a senior Nat MP who is second in line to the throne – scaaaaaary and stupid to say the least.
The phrase he used was “an infusion of philipinos”, not invasion.
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“so is there a flippin invasion of dipsticks or not?”
yeah, Nat supporters