Editorial: Matthews has to go, but then the hard work starts for Nats (+letters to the editor)

LET'S CONCEDE that Barry Matthews has a tough job. His department must look after the human wreckage that society has spurned: the lost, the vicious, the drunk and the addicted, the hopeless and the bent and twisted.

Prisons have never been any good at rehabilitating the people banged up inside them: often enough the criminals emerge more dangerous than when they went in. The job of supervising them when they leave is equally difficult, and the life of a parole officer is hard and nasty. Corrections has the most difficult clientele of any government department.

Let's also concede that governments have made life more difficult for Matthews and his team. Politicians have cultivated and encouraged the get-tough brigade, and bowed to their wishes. The result is that New Zealand is one of the most enthusiastic jailers in the Western world. The justice system keeps throwing more and more people into prison, and Corrections somehow has to cope.

Let's also concede that Corrections, for deep historical reasons, is not well placed to cope. The tough criminal culture has produced a tough culture among the guards. Attempts to change this culture are difficult and take time. One reason for the enthusiastic move to try private prisons all those years ago was the feeling that the state prison system was unreformable: a fresh start was needed.

And let's admit that there is a problem of "resources" in the probation service as well. Probation officers have a hellish job. They are dealing with tough, manipulative and often violent people; they must have great social skills and a large dollop of courage. For a long time the probation service was woefully short-staffed. No doubt a lot more money still needs to be spent on training new officers. And finally let's concede that changing the system is not going to be easy or quick.

Does all this mean that Matthews should keep his job? No. The Auditor-General's report is, in truth, a damning one and there can be no excuses for the trouble it uncovered. A year-long audit showed that despite the department's spectacular failures in the case of murderers William Bell and Graeme Burton, Corrections continued to fail to do its job. This was not a case simply of not enough workers to carry out the tasks. It was just plain negligence and sloppiness. Dangerous prisoners walked free and no attempt was made to warn their victims. Others went out into the world and did not see a probation officer for weeks or months.

The public, in other words, was at risk because the department wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. Matthews, as the chief executive of the department, must be accountable for these failings. He has been in charge for four years. That is long enough to ensure that those who work in the organisation do the job they are paid to do. These were not isolated shortcomings. They were frequent or systemic.

Traditionally, we have demanded accountability either from the minister or the chief executive of a department; too often, both have declined to accept the blame. Judith Collins has the great good luck to be a new minister, and cannot fairly be blamed. The buck stops, therefore, with Matthews. No doubt he has done his best. No doubt he has worked hard to reform an intractable organisation that has had to bear impossible new loads. But in the end, the democratic system requires accountability. If Matthews will not resign, the State Services Commission must move or sack him.

And then the really hard work will begin again. Judith Collins is a "hard-liner" in social policy as, apparently, in everything else. John Key had the great good sense not to make her Minister of Social Welfare, even though she was spokesperson in that field. Key knew that appointing a Bert Walker or a Jenny Shipley to this portfolio would not sit well with his attempts to remake the National Party as a centrist organisation.

But Collins did seem right for Corrections, because National's line on law and order was a hard-line one. But if Collins thinks that getting rid of Matthews and running a brutal penal system will solve all her problems she is wrong. Even if probation officers are efficient and competent, there will still be recidivism and frightful cases of re-offending. No system has proved much good at predicting which prisoners will reoffend and which will not. In opposition, parties have the luxury of baying for blood and retribution and easy answers.

In government, politicians discover that there are no easy answers, that crime cannot simply be "stamped out" and that eventually they will be facing the same barbs that they threw in opposition, the same public anger and frustration, the same hysterical nostrums peddled by the interest groups. There is a certain justice in this.

Collins and National, in other words, will luxuriate for a few years in the role of blameless accuser. They will say it is all Labour's fault, or the bureaucrats', or the teachers', or whoever else offers an easy target. And eventually they too will have to answer for their actions.

Have we got it all wrong? (Letter of the week)
A WINZ employee kindly suggests a couple of budget ideas and it gets critically discussed at parliament in the chamber.

Having had some experience with Winz-subsidised workers, it would seem that problem-solving and troubleshooting workshops for the beneficiaries would be an excellent idea.

They would be congratulated and appreciated when everyone in the room had contributed 101 ways to:

1. Increase income.

2. Decrease expenses.

3. Manage their own and the family budget.

I am self-employed in this economy and if you aren't creative, innovative and courageous it doesn't work.

I say give the Winz employee a medal. In fact on my next visit to Auckland I will do it myself.

Geoff Love
Nelson

Nia Glassie
PETER DAVIS [Professor, Sociology of Health and Well-Being, University of Auckland] is a good man. However, his views about Nia Glassie (Letters, February 15) defy known facts. The state can do some things, like funding services that assist people to live useful lives, or providing emergency benefits. There are other things that it will never achieve satisfactorily.

It has shown itself unable to be a substitute parent. The state encouraged Nia's mother to produce children by paying the DPB. State generosity meant that evil flotsam and jetsam came into the baby's short life. Those able-bodied people had benefits too. Moreover, it tolerated the drug/alcohol/parental neglect surrounding Nia Glassie. She was useful to her biological parents only because of the welfare entitlement she carried.

Careless welfare wasted their lives and consequently hers.

What chance had the state of getting Peter Davis's "able-bodied men" into work or training since it already paid for their dissolute lives? Davis's fence at the top of the cliff surely has to involve more Family Planning, stricter benefit rules, better infant care by women like Lisa Kuka who take the DPB, and improved police surveillance of the underclass that tortured Nia to death. Surely, after 35 years of easy welfare and countless billions for the caring industry, academics can see that we have the wrong mix of policies? Expecting parental responsibility from those who take welfare is fundamental. When the state creates problems with one hand, trying to fix them with the other never works.

Michael Bassett
Auckland

Market forces
I WAS disappointed to read your headline "Mortgagee sales rise frightening" (February 15), which continues the sensationalism and general negative press surrounding the current economic conditions. While I obviously feel for those having to sell their homes, the fact that these are in the low hundreds hardly constitutes a national crisis. Contrast this with your article in the same paper "Relief for first timers" which talks about the opportunity the market is presenting for first home buyers, and I query why this article did not make the front page?

Jim Brodie
Wellington

Boy racers
ROSEMARY McLEOD has to really check her facts before penning a column (February 15). Since entering the security industry I have had regular run-ins with boy racers, often associated with serious crime. Burglary, car theft, threatening behaviour to businesses (including ripping flues off roofs and smashing windows with staff and owners inside, and trying to burn premises) and arson (the penalty for the act of arson or attempting arson is up to 14 years' jail) in dry times.

I have had bottles thrown at me when trying to move boy racers on from private property.

With the coming economic depression and worldwide events where young people have begun to take on authorities through riots etc, things are going to get only worse unless action is taken.

Yes, past generations have gone through this, but, when you have to deal with this new lot, it is the aggression and lack of responsibility that strikes you. Younger generations always push the boundaries, but in this case our younger generations have no boundaries to push against or so they believe.

Ken Duncan
Christchurch

CONGRATULATIONS TO Rosemary McLeod on her sublime piece of flagrant and unabashed ignorance in the column "Boy racers get bad rap from ageing rebels" published in last Sunday's issue.

"As far as I know, they're not noted for serious criminal activity and they don't kill anyone," she writes.

One of my very best friends, a wonderful young woman by the name of Libby Hart, was violently killed in June of last year when a young man who by anyone's description could be called nothing other than a "boy racer" hit her as she crossed the road in Christchurch. He was speeding at around 120km/h in a suburban 50km zone, purely for the purposes of "showing off" outside a party.

I didn't need to look very far in the news archives to find examples of at least three other incidents in Christchurch, Wellington and Tauranga, where innocent people have been killed in similar circumstances. And as for "serious criminal activity", you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would agree with you that manslaughter and dangerous driving causing death the charges these "boy racers" face or have been convicted of don't fall into this category.

And as to Ms McLeod, wake up and face the facts before you deeply offend any more people for whom these tragedies are so very close to home.

Kiri Stanton
North Canterbury

Columnists
MICHAEL LAWS impressive, your humorous "glass is half full" approach is just what is needed from a politician. You'd be welcome up our way, but we already have a first-class mayor.

Rosemary McLeod don't always share your views, but you have got this one spot on. Good on you, but how will you get anyone to listen. Of course we must try to channel and not crush our kids. Unfortunately, I am not convinced you'd get resource consent for burn-out parks, and ... oh dear, then there's Osh 'nuff said.

Finlay Macdonald a hole in one. I recently bought the three-CD series of Commanding Heights to better understand the recent development of economic theory in the (mainly western) world through the 20th century great stuff for us beginners. Our reliance on "experts" has become the blinded leading the blind. As individuals we are increasingly encouraged to value material wealth, no wonder we are vulnerable. It seems the only real answer lies in a higher standard of morality, but this may be unrealistic except where that has been coupled with religious fundamentalism and converted to violence. It is interesting to see how [Barack] Obama hit the right notes, but can he produce a good song? We can only hope so.

David Hill
Tauranga

Watch the real threats
THE WORST terrorist attack committed in New Zealand since the founding of the SIS was not committed by anti-war activists, environmentalists, Green MPs or adherents of Marx or Lenin. It was the Rainbow Warrior bombing committed in 1985 by members of the French Secret Service, the DGSE. However, the SIS were of little help in stopping this attack and ordinary police officers caught the perpetrators. Ironically, like the SIS, the DGSE had an unhealthy obsession with communists and environmentalists. The real threat to democracy does not come from staunch advocates of civil liberties, like Keith Locke, but rather the twisted world views of those in secret intelligence organisations, such as the SIS and DGSE.

Cameron Walker
Auckland

Deadly as the male
ALTHOUGH I can fully empathise with the feelings and sentiments articulated by Paul Holmes (February 15), I do wonder why it is that we never hear similar sentiments being expressed about young, and not so young, women.

While they may not resort to the insidious introduction of drugs or outright physical abuse resorted to by some of their male counterparts, they can be just as effective in destroying the male's confidence and mental wellbeing through the devious use of verbal and emotional abuse.

While not as obvious as the tactics employed by the so-called filth, criminals and low-life experienced by Mr Holmes and Paula Bennett they are, nonetheless, just as effective.

Mirek Marcanik
Wellington

Tuatara ancestry
WITH REFERENCE to Catherine Woulfe's article, "Back to the Jurassic" (February 15), she describes tuatara as "descendants of dinosaurs".

This is incorrect: I'm not a qualified scientist but I do know that toots trace their lineage back to the Lepidosauromorpha, an ancestral group that also gave rise to the lizards and snakes. Tuatara have undergone a lot of change during their 200 million year-plus existence, but nevertheless their ancestors actually pre-date the dinosaurs. If you want to see descendants of dinosaurs today, look to the birds.

Matt Turner
Whangaparaoa

Trademarking the haka
YOUR FEBRUARY 15 editorial on the use of the haka "Ka Mate" for commercial gain asked individual New Zealanders "how they would feel if a favourite part of their own heritage was used to sell sausages or cellphones". I don't recall your having asked this question previously despite extracts from Beethoven symphonies and Mendelssohn overtures having been used on TV to sell merchandise or services. Did you not recognise the music? Or is our western heritage less worthy?

John Phillips
Auckland

Reviewing America
DDGUTTENPLAN'S BOOK review of America, Empire of Liberty (Books, February 15) seems less like a review and more like his and his pal IFStone's muddled opinions on history and democracy, particularly American. Let him go back to his glass tower to hurl stones and let the Star-Times find book reviewers a little closer to home than the Nation magazine. Granted, US history is far from perfect, whose is? But if "America is a problem", I guess his fellow Britons should switch their support to some other countries seeking leadership roles on the world stage, like Iran, Venezuela, China or Russia. I'm sure that Guttenplan can continue his work on folks like Stone far easier under their gentle tutelage.

Dave Evans
Christchurch

Deaker and Veitch
I HAVE just finished watching this week's edition of Deaker On Sport. I was not looking forward to it. The Veitch comeback.

I have to admit I have never been a fan of Veitch. I have always felt, though, that the way he was treated by the media was way over the top and possibly undeserved. We should always presume someone innocent until proven otherwise.

I admit though I have enjoyed the time he has been off the airways and the TV screens. I do believe that he is an example of all that is wrong with today's sporting media. I would say his sporting knowledge is quite limited. His radio show is like a three-hour cliche. Let's just have some talkback and see how it goes. I doubt whether he has come up with an original idea since he has been on radio.

He has never found the right balance between what he thinks is funny and some serious comment.

After reading Murray Deaker's comment that he and Veitch are two of the very few passionate sporting commentators in the country, I thought how very much alike they are. It appears that everything is about them.

I think Tony could learn a lot from the Keith Quinns and Brendon Telfers of the world.

Ian Tucker
Hastings

Flight 811 feedback
I WAS seated on the left of the plane about a cabin back or so from the hole which was on the other side of the plane. I think it was about row 23 (a row back from the exit). I had just sat back down in my seat from visiting the toilet when it all happened. I do recall I remained calm. The lady sitting beside me was not and she held on to my hand very tightly. I recall looking around the cabin and seeing only a few oxygen masks dangling around the cabin. There were pieces of the aircraft ceiling lying about the cabin. The cabin crew had a loud hailer trying to tell us to stay seated and put our life vests on. It was cold and very noisy. I had pieces of ice and plastic glass down my back as the drinks trolley had just been pushed through the cabin. My bag and cardigan, which were under the seat in front of me, were gone, but found several seats away afterwards. Somehow we stayed up in the air and made it back to Honolulu airport. I was just pleased to get off the plane by way of the emergency slide.

Anyway, I felt compelled to put some words down after reading the article in the Sunday Star-Times. I wanted to get in touch with the Campbells before now after they appeared on television and now I have my chance.

Thinking of you all at this time. Keep safe.

Victoria Fowler
Auckland

EN ROUTE to Honolulu, I felt like a ciggy and made my way aft to the smokers' section. There I engaged in party mode and conversation with a wonderful American woman from California. She relayed the events from the eve before when her adult children had given a farewell party to their parents, who were off to Australia on a business/holiday. We then fell into a discussion re the Seoul summer [Olympic] Games and since she and her husband were yachties, I boasted about the US sailing team, having trained in Newport, Rhode Island. I even mentioned the names of a few, about which she disagreed. "Why don't we go and sit with my husband in business class and figure this out." I suggested that after departing from Hawaii, I would grab another drink off the trolley, come sit on the arm of her seat, and we would conclude our conversation. We left Hawaii at approx 1am and, on cue, the drinks trolley arrived. I was seated on the port side, in the cabin directly behind business class row eight, next to the window overlooking engines one and two. However, I passed up the idea of my plan, since I had had several Grand Marniers and elected to remain seated, fill out my disembarking card and wait for another drinks trolley later. Suddenly, with my head bent, there was an extraordinary WHHHHISSS. My new friend and her husband were sucked out of the fuselage.

Lorraine Hall-Fox
Christchurch

TWENTY MINUTES into the flight, the crew had handed out our dinner menus and were preparing the drinks cabinet. We were now at 22,000ft when a loud hissing sound, followed by an almighty THUD sound rocked the plane, our cabin filling with fog due to the decompression. Lining ripped off the walls, overhead compartments burst open spilling out their contents. The wind noise was immense, and turbulence felt as the plane turned, dropping off fuel and heading back to Honolulu, was unnerving. The crew were so professional, carrying out all the emergency procedures. Megaphones were used to shout above the noise as we were ordered to put on our life jackets and get in the crash position. No oxygen masks, which had been ripped out, were needed. Somehow we were in a shocked calm and terrified state. I personally was cold and shaking. Seeing a passenger ahead taking photos, I quickly took my camera from my bag on the floor and took two shots. A shout from the other side of the cabin indicated the lights of Honolulu and a loud cheer was heard as there now seemed a chance we might survive, when moments before it looked like a watery grave awaited.

Beverley Thomas
Hastings

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