Meaning lost in translation

Yet again a politician has been brought low through no fault of his own, writes The Dominion Post. On this occasion, and not for the first time, it was the hapless and now former environment minister David Benson-Pope, blamed for a new employee at the Environment Ministry losing her job because her partner works for National Party leader John Key. How this could be will be as much a mystery to Dominion Post readers as to Mr Benson-Pope because he had made it clear he would not dream of interfering in employment matters.

But it appears there had been a misunderstanding between the minister and ministry chief executive Hugh Logan. A friendly call from Mr Benson-Pope's political adviser to Mr Logan to chew the fat about Madeleine Setchell's relationship was misinterpreted as an indication of ministerial concern about the appointment.

A conversation during which Mr Benson-Pope told Mr Logan he would "likely be less free and frank" in the presence of the ministry's new communications head was misconstrued as, well, an indication he would "likely be less free and frank" in her presence.

This is all terribly unfair on Mr Benson-Pope, whose reputation has further been tarnished by mean-spirited nitpickers reminding him that when he was first asked if he or his office had played a part in Ms Setchell's departure, he said: "No, I don't know anything about the detail of that issue."

So how is it that Ms Setchell got the push? The obvious answer is that politicians speak a different version of English. When Mr Benson-Pope said he didn't know anything about the detail of the case it was assumed he was blissfully unaware of what had taken place. But what he actually meant was that he didn't know how much compensation Ms Setchell was paid, what the weather was like on the day of her departure and what colour tie Mr Logan was wearing at the time.

Unfortunately, these sorts of misunderstandings are all too common between politicians and the public.

When Jim Bolger promised, "no ifs, no buts, no maybes" that a National government would repeal the superannuation surtax, some naive individuals took that to mean a National government would scrap the surtax. When Don Brash said he did not know who was behind an anti-government leaflet campaign during the last election campaign, some assumed that meant he did not know who was responsible for the campaign. What he actually meant was that it was not in his interests to reveal it was the Exclusive Brethren.

Memory is another concept that has long caused misunderstandings between politicians and the public. When an ordinary person says "I have forgotten where I put my car keys", it means they do not know where their car keys are. When a politician says he or she can't remember something it usually means they can but they would rather they could not. Hence Mr Benson-Pope's inability to remember whether he taped a former pupil's hands to his desk while the pupil had a tennis ball in his mouth.

A week ago Mr Benson-Pope thought he had come up with a new way to solve an age-old problem. Finding a pesky Dominion Post reporter on the other end of his cellphone, he extemporised. "Hello, hello. I can't hear you, hello, hello, you're breaking up."

Unfortunately for the then minister, it was not his reception that was breaking up. It was his reputation.

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