Jesse Mulligan deserves a medal

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, December 4th, 2018 - 24 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, internet, Media, national, Politics, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, twitter, workers' rights - Tags:

Maggie Barry has been the subject of fresh allegations of bullying, this time from an anonymous source previously employed within her Ministerial office.

From Anna Bracewell-Worrall at Newshub:

Speaking to Newshub anonymously, the source said Ms Barry would lash out at staff and that she was “totally intimidating”.

“She would attack and belittle your work in front of other people.”

They worked in her ministerial office, and said staff would break down in tears.

The staff member said Ms Barry would treat everyone below her station with “utter contempt” – including referring to officials in her ministerial departments as “hired help”.

The office culture sounds brutal. And there are further allegations of state resources being used for National Party purposes:

The anonymous staffer said Ms Barry’s staff began to internalise criticism. They said “some took so much punishment they came to believe they deserved it”.

“They took the criticism home with them,” they added.

Ms Barry has also been accused of using parliamentary employees – paid for by taxpayers – for National Party work.

She denied that, but the staffer said Ms Barry’s parliamentary press secretary spent “hours and hours” on her newsletter Maggie’s eMessenger.

No formal complaints were laid, as the staffer said they were worried it might harm their chances of getting more work at Parliament.

However they claimed problems were raised with Ministerial Services, which Ms Barry has rejected.

And Jesse Mulligan has publicly commented on the recently released tape which contained Maggie Barry about him.

She was reported to have claimed privately that she doesn’t care what Mulligan thinks and that his conservation advocacy was pathetic.  Talk about born to rule.

His response was perfect.

Truth is the stuff on that tape not the worst thing anyone’s said about me. It’s probably no worse than what you or I have said about people we don’t like when we thought our conversations were private. And actually, it’s a good thing for the media to upset politicians from time to time – it means we’re doing our job.

But there’s a bigger issue here. What does it tell you about a Minister of Conservation that she has this reaction to someone speaking up in support of conservation?

I’m someone with a microphone, with a voice. If she can so easily dismiss my ideas as “pathetic”, what chance do you have of being heard when you write her a letter, or make a submission to a select committee, or turn up at a protest?

I have a theory: I think what made Maggie Barry most angry about my piece on The Project was that she could tell it was striking a chord.

She says I was opinionated, but I wasn’t actually sharing my views. I was sharing the views of every scientist, DoC worker and volunteer I’d ever spoken to, who told me again and again that New Zealand’s natural world was on the verge of collapse and the Government wasn’t doing enough to stop it.

Here’s the proof that it was the right message at the right time: more than a million of you watched, liked and shared our stories about conservation last year, and six months later Maggie Barry lost her job.

Then in May, for the first time in nine years, DoC was given some more money for their baseline budget to spend on protecting our threatened species.

And for those who accuse Mulligan of bias again he had the perfect response:

The new Minister is Eugenie Sage. We’ll be watching her closely, and hopefully from time to time, I’ll piss her off too.

However this did not stop the usual suspects from claiming that there was bias on Mulligan’s part:

https://twitter.com/hamishpricenz/status/1069726819367059456

https://twitter.com/MatthewHootonNZ/status/1069644862163570688

I am really struggling to understand why Mulligan has attracted such opprobrium. All he has done is hold National Ministers to task and advocate for protection of our environment.  Maybe the right think they are awful things.

24 comments on “Jesse Mulligan deserves a medal ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Nick 1
    4 December 2018 at 12:23 pm

    Jesse did well. Maggie did the opposite.

  2. Sanctuary 2
    4 December 2018 at 12:57 pm

    lol at Hooton, he has totally lost the plot. Even RNZ can’t stomach his conspiracy laden outbursts anymore.

    Off to join Bomber in the not taken seriously corner.

    • Muttonbird 2.1
      4 December 2018 at 10:08 pm

      Has Hooton been fired from RNZ as well as the NBR? Fantastic if true.

      Only the Herald willing to publish him now…

      • Chris 2.1.1
        8 December 2018 at 8:48 pm

        Why would they’ve done that now? He was in the thick of dirty politics and they kept him on. Was interesting that he was on air back then providing commentary on his own filth. If RNZ were going to sack him you’d think it would’ve been then. What might’ve he done lately to get the boot?

  3. Cinny 3
    4 December 2018 at 1:02 pm

    Standing ovation for Jesse Mulligan, much respect.

    Any anger by the nat’s & co should be directed at the Herald for publishing the tape where poison ivy is talking shite about Jesse. Did anyone really think he wouldn’t respond.

    Far as I know nat supporters didn’t seem to be up in arms last year when Jesse and his team did the piece on conservation, exposing maggies lack of love for it.

  4. mike 4
    4 December 2018 at 1:09 pm

    When a court ruled that, legally, conservation land could not be swallowed by the proposed Ruitaniwha dam Conservation Minister Maggie Barry airily said ‘Well, the law should be changed’. Talk about the fox in charge of the chicken house!

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    4 December 2018 at 1:50 pm

    Nats haven’t had a tough guy for a leader since Bolger. She’s probably reflected on Simon being so soft, and thought “Hey, maybe they’d go for a tough woman?”

    Shipley tried it, but convinced nobody. Barry seems to have figured that all she need do is out-tough the crusher. She was on the RNZ news again at 1pm, denying fresh allegations of bullying. The two people on Jim Mora’s panel yesterday discussed her & agreed with similar views expressed by commentators here. Must be quite a word-of-mouth thing happening.

  6. veutoviper 6
    4 December 2018 at 3:10 pm

    I certainly agree Jesse Mulligan deserves respect for standing up and speaking publicly.

    I rarely watch The Project – and then only on demand if I hear of something I think might be worth viewing.

    The focus seems to have been on Mulligan as a TV host, whereas he also hosts the RNZ National radio show, Afternoons, from 1pm to 3.45pm Mondays to Fridays before the awful Mora and The Panel.

    I really enjoy Afternoons and Mulligan has introduced a number of new items and areas of focus – one being a strong dedication to conservation and in particular rat control. He is a really dedicated advocate to the latter – one could almost say obsessive. He also has a lot of regular slots for example on Fridays with DOC’s ambassador, Nicola Tuki, which usually is well worth a listen for her ‘Creature of the Week’ where she features little known native insects etc. She has a wonderful sense of humour!

    On Thursdays, he now has a Short Story of the Week section where the story is put up earlier in the week on the website and then listeners are able to comment and discuss on that section on Thursdays. Also on Thursdays, is a slot where people are able to submit information about their university thesis and then be interviewed about it by Jesse.

    I really do recommend listening if you are able.

    • Doogs 6.1
      5 December 2018 at 9:05 am

      I am often able VV, and sometimes listen. There’s something about Jesse that grates with me, and for the life of me I cannot put a finger on what it is. He is better on The Project, probably because he can be himself more in that medium. Why you abhor Jim Mora is beyond me. He’s quite harmless. I don’t like some of his guests on the panel but that’s par for the course. He hosts a good variety of different opinions among his guests, and I enjoy listening.

      • veutoviper 6.1.1
        5 December 2018 at 9:58 am

        Well there you are, Doogs.

        We are all different, yet the same. Jesse grates on you; Jim Mora grates on me, even though, as you say, I enjoy listening to (some of) the diversity of views expressed by his guests. Sometimes I just have to turn them off as my blood pressure goes through the roof!

        Yes Mora is harmless, but I cannot stand his tunnel vision ( dare I say, ‘middle class’) view of life. Some years ago at the same time of year as now, Mora forever stamped this on my memory when he claimed “But everyone has a ham at Christmas!”

        No perception at all that for many low income families/people, a ham could cost their entire weekly food budget or more. Or that for some people, eating pigs is abhorrent in view of pigs’ high levels of intelligence and/or for religious reasons, and for others who are vegetarians or vegans, all meat is abhorrent and off the menu.

        But it would be a very boring world/’echo chamber’ if we all thought the same!

        Have a nice day.

        • sumsuch 6.1.1.1
          11 December 2018 at 10:05 pm

          Jim Mora puts middle-class privilege over the old social-democracy. No shit. That was the lever that dissolved our commonwealth.

  7. feijoa 7
    4 December 2018 at 4:47 pm

    A friend of mine who came across Maggie Barry a few years ago commented-“She didn’t listen to a word I said”

    Has a rather high opinion of herself methinks
    No concept of her role as an MP in a democracy either

  8. Morrissey 8
    4 December 2018 at 4:50 pm

    He did his job for once. Too bad that on other occasions he has often failed to do his homework.

    https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/more-evidence-of-jesse-mulligans.html

  9. ken 9
    4 December 2018 at 5:28 pm

    Maggie is just one small part of the ugliness that is the NZ National Party.

  10. Pete 10
    4 December 2018 at 6:03 pm

    Poll results came out the other day and National weren’t down the tubes.

    Why are Matthew Hooton and hammiest Price in desperation/pathetic mode?

  11. peterlepaysan 11
    4 December 2018 at 9:36 pm

    I have not been a Mulligan fan. I have only experienced his RNZ slot for the first half hour or so, on a daily basis. YAWN! (ok, ok, I drive a bus from 1.30pm onwards

    His reponse to barry is brilliant. Barry has always been a domineering knowall even before she came out of the National Party entitled closet. Just go back and listen to her Lady Bracknell tones as a RNZ presenter, let alone her commandments about gardens on TV.

    Maybe The Project is somethng on tv I should watch.

    • gsays 11.1
      5 December 2018 at 6:55 am

      “Maybe The Project is somethng on tv I should watch.”
      No, mate. No.

      Half an hour of the arvo show on RNZ would be very high brow compared to the inane drivel dished up on the project.

  12. swordfish 12
    4 December 2018 at 10:00 pm

    Numerous complaints about her haughty attitude around 20 years ago.

    She was acting as a celebrity Tour Guide of Gardens / Stately Homes in the UK (kiwi tourists paying a premium for her name).

    Media published a plethora of complaints that she remained aloof and distant / did the absolute minimum necessary / stayed in far better hotels / first class seat on plane (vs her tourist clients in cattle class) and so on.

    Didn’t want to sully herself with the great unwashed – even though they were the ones paying for her new lifestyle of international travel & leisure.

    Fast forward to 2018 … Interesting that a number of her office staff have spontaneously contacted the media and that almost all of the various North Shore constituents interviewed by RNZ said they weren’t in any way surprised. They’d all heard on the grapevine that she was unhelpful & unsympathetic to the lower orders, non-elite philistines that they are.

    Fair enough, too. Maggie’s special … as I’m sure she’ll tell you herself.

  14. Mr Marshy 14
    5 December 2018 at 5:12 pm

    Mulligan … and other dim cry baby socialist.

  15. Gerald Freeman 15
    5 December 2018 at 7:03 pm

    Good on you Jesse, Maggie Barrie played around at photo ops while DOC struggle to do more with less.

  16. TeAroPundit 16
    5 December 2018 at 7:55 pm

    This little ditty may express how a number of Maggie’s long-suffering staff really think about her demeanor: