Written By:
Zetetic - Date published:
3:00 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 27 comments
Categories: local government, scoundrels -
Tags: michael laws
Michael Laws: get on with your job and stop prancing around on the media stage.
Laws has put out a second (yes, a second) press release justifying being rude to some schoolkids who wrote to him. Apparently, Laws can think of no better use of his time and of Whanganui ratepayers’ dollars than continuing to beat up on some Maori kids who had a nerve to tell him they thought he was wrong.
This whole ‘issue’ is a stupid waste of time and public money. The whole ‘h’ in Whanganui issue is stupid and Laws is entirely responsible for building it up into a national issue. It’s just a piece of racist dogwhistling (like the gang patches ban) that Laws has used to tap into the deep vein of bigotry that runs through Pakeha New Zealand to win himself votes. He made himself the poster-boy for angry impotent middle-aged Pakeha men who take their anger out on Maori, rather than the wealthy Pakeha business elite who are really the ones holding them down.
Laws has the nerve and the appalling taste to write “Not one of the 16 kiddies murdered since the passage of the anti-smacking bill has received this sort of press”. If he really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his council’s resources to the issue, rather than using it as the Michael Laws promotion vehicle.
Honestly, what a dick
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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really does speak volumes about just how unfit for the job Laws is
Yes – with attitudes like that he should be the Childrens Commissioner !
The H is a non-issue, the continued abuse of kids isn’t.
Sprout, the trouble is that (as Zet says) this sort of shit-stirring is the job.
Qualifications to be Mayor of Wanganui:
1. Get more votes than any other candidate.
Unfortunately, due to the general damfoolishness of a large hunk (though by no means all) of the Wanganui population, Laws is uniquely suited to the task.
I went on about this obliquely at some length here and in a much more brief and direct fashion here, if you’re short a few hours’ dull Monday afternoon reading ; )
L
good comments Lew, I fear you may be entirely correct in your observations.
in which case, the good folk of WHanganui need to be forced to be free 😉
Whilst not excusing the remarks made by Laws, your attacking of him here is off the mark on a couple of points.
From memory he does not draw a salary from his job as Mayor of Wanganui so saying that this is a waste of ratepayers money is not entirely accurate.
I agree the “h” in Wanganui issue is a beat up. It should be left to the people of Wanganui to decide and since 80% of them what the status quo, it should remain as such.
“If he really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his council’s resources to the issue, rather than using it as the Michael Laws promotion vehicle.”
That is a bit of a strange statement. That would be like me saying “If Zetetic really cared about child abuse he would be devoting his time at the standard to the issue, rather than using it as a New Zealand sucks campaign vehicle”
I think Michael was wrong in the way he handled the letters of the kids, and should be reprimanded for it.
but he’s publishing these press releases as mayor so there’s some council resource involved – presumably a media person plus the website etc.
Zetty isn’t the one putting out press releases using child abuse as a distraction. Laws is behaving disgracefully.
Why isn’t he drawing a salary? He’s doing a job – why not get paid and if he wants to give the money away – do so. It also strikes me as a great way to divest yourself of responsibility – you’re not paying me, I volunteer my time ergo I can spout off all types of tripe without impunity.
P.S. If he’s not getting a salary how can he pay for all that eyeliner he’s using. He looks like a damn panda with all that makeup on. Surely radio doesn’t pay that well these days…
radio pays very well… Leighton Smith is on over $500 an hour.
lukas, correction:
Radio pays very poorly, but being a blowhard demagogue who uses well-documented mass arousal techniques to distract people from their real problems, make them focus on today’s enemy of choice, and listen to advertising while doing so pays very well.
Not quite so pithy, I know, but pithiness is secondary to accuracy.
L
captcha: ‘intelligences’. You can haz!
You wont get an argument from me on that 😀
One only has to listen to Willie Jackson to prove that point!
It may also explain the advertisement running on Live at the moment about Radio Live having less advertising than ZB… probably because not many people listen to Live!
He draws the salary but claims to give it all away. Last time I looked… which admittedly was a few years back… he was giving it to things like a “Mayoral Mile” which, surprise surprise, placed the focus where he always wants it to be — on Michael Laws.
He repeatedly refused requests to divulge the causes to which he donates the salary, saying it’s his salary and thus none of anyone’s business. Which it isn’t — unless you try to win votes and support by claiming you give it all away… a nice little circular argument if ever there was.
Let’s face it, this is a man who’d leverage his own child’s tragic illness into a double page spread in some Woman’s Daze article.
His entire reason for having the mayoralty is to provide a shred of credibility to his self-aggrandisement by providing a firmer platform from which to rant.
After all, “Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws…” sounds so much better on a press release than “Disgraced former MP and remaindered author Michael Laws…”.
Couple of good questions there, Tigger.
He makes enough from his media work to sustain himself without needing the mayoral salary. While that actually makes him a part-time mayor he is able to garner votes by being ‘cheaper’ than any potential opponent. It’s kind of smug, wealthier than thou stuff. The Monty Burns school of political entitlement. But the money still gets wasted on endless self promotion via the council, all paid out of the public coffers. Lose/lose.
The eyeliner is supposedly tattooed in, so at least there is no further cost there.
Is nothing sacred?
It’s bad enough I have to share a country with this f*cking moron, now his ugly mug is appearing in the international press…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/07/maverick-mayors
its a free country, feel free to leave.
Charming! I always had Kiwi’s down as decent, hospitable and welcoming. I guess I must have got it wrong.
We are charming and hospitable as a rule. But to hear someone complain about having to “share” the country with this “f*cking” moron changes the rules somewhat.
Are you in charge of making/changing “the rules” now lukey pookey?
Does your Mum know about this?
What rules — the kind dictated by Michael Laws?
Weasel in bantam’s clothing
what’s it like, little stoat
ripping out a fledgling’s throat
do her screams soothe the hole
that once contained a soul
and do the chooks in your wee roost
give your tiny heart a boost
as they cackle at your feet
when you slash again the weak
or do your eyes, brother stoat
and your white-skull scowl
gleaming bright through the cloak
of that gaudy little fowl
reveal the tortured ghoul inside
that mascara cannot hide
sleep well brother stoat
in your filthy bantam coat
may you wake as a louse
in the anus of a mouse
ak – pardon my ignorance but… is that original? If so, it’s incandescently good! If you’ve borrowed it, your choice was superb. Until I hear otherwise, I’ll believe it’s yours and be consumed by envy.
it is brilliant. some day when the standard is rich and famous, ak can be our poet in residence.
aww shucks, thanks fellas….glad you like my little slanging rhymes, try it for yourselves – great catharsis!
Democracy – that damned word again.
Mr Laws was re-elected as Mayor – so he does represent a majority.
He initiated the referendum on the naming of his town to local voters – they voted to leave it as Wanganui.
Damn this Democracy – why does it return results we don’t agree with !
It looks as if most of the voting population of Wanganui are “angry impotent middle-aged Pakeha men ” – why don’t they vote the way we want them to ? it’s not fair ! it’s not fair !
I love the “deep vein of bigotry ” as a description for the majority of the voters there – wow ! such respect man !
How right you are, democracy can suck. Lots of little “sad sacks” get to be elected by equally sad constituancies. Remember Muldoon, very amusing fellow, genuinely elected by a sad sack electorate and like Laws a bigoted sad sack.
I was in Wanganui recently, I did not notice any deep vein of bigotry from the middle aged Pakehas, and the Mob looked positively well behaved compared to the boy racer louts. Still once the patches are out of town Laws will need another target. How very boring.
There is something vaguely ironic in the title post about an “angry sadsack” that has a category of “f*ckwits”.
yes, there is a certain level of self-deprecating irony on this site. well-spotted 🙂