Dear Mr. Joyce,
In previous letters, I have referred to anti-male bias in Government
agencies that deal with alleged domestic violence. I have, for instance,
claimed that Government agencies are anti-male (in my
letter of 21 January 2016) and I have referred to perceived injustices
committed by the police and/or court psychologists and/or witnesses
and/or court staff and/or judges (in my letter
of 23 March 2016).
However, I have not asked you about this issue. Therefore, under
the Official Information Act, could you please send me copies of any
and all documents which commit the Executive generally, the Police,
the Courts, or any specific part of Government to refraining from
discriminating on the basis of sex?
In this connection, I draw your attention to the incident which
involved a Maori woman throwing an object at you, which hit you, on
Waitangi Day. The woman was not charged, whereas the
man who later assaulted Gerry Brownlee was charged.
The fact that the woman was not charged was one important issue,
as mentioned by Don Brash (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11595081).
Under the Official Information Act, could you please tell me whether
the reason she was not charged was the fact that you did not lay a
complaint or the fact that the Police themselves decided not to charge
her, or both?
"We actually thought it was a little bit humorous at
the end of it all … new experiences in politics everyday,
it's the privilege of serving."
In the context of the fact that you are a very senior Government
Minister and have taken an interest in the issue of domestic violence,
that is a very serious issue indeed! It may well be that other men
(including myself) might have reacted in a similar way, if we had
been in your shoes. It also may well be that your reaction might have
been – in part – a calculated one, after you had rapidly
weighed up the public relations implications of a White male being
in a legal dispute with a Maori woman at Waitangi on Waitangi Day.
It also may well be that you might have realised that you were surrounded
by totally anti-male (and mostly anti-White) media, who would probably
have taken the side of the Maori woman in their reporting.
The point is that male police officers, male lawyers and male judges
are also subject to similar pressures. These people interfere in people’s
homes while supposedly trying to reduce domestic violence. But your
own behaviour demonstrates that a double standard operates against
men. Do you promote:
-
equality between men and women or
-
male dominance, coupled with male chivalry towards women, or
-
so-called “equality” between men and women, with chivalry
towards women added, as icing on women’s cake?
I suggest that your Government can get absolutely nowhere near reducing
domestic violence if it persists in giving women EQUALITY + CHIVALRY.
Men will just continue to realise that the police and the courts are
the Women’s Police and the Women’s Courts, and oppressed
men will just have to resort to whatever means are at their disposal
to fight their corner.
It is relevant here to discuss the nature of the media. You may have
noticed that the headline of the TVNZ article was: “TPP protester
boldly chucks d1ld0 at Steven Joyce at Waitangi.” It is typical
of the media that they glorify female violence against males –
calling it “bold” – while creating mass hysteria about
male violence against women.
On the Television One Breakfast Show, I once saw the male presenter,
Rawdon Christie, urge women to slap any man who asked if they were pregnant.
The point was that some women are overweight and dislike being asked
if they are pregnant. Christie should have been fired for advocating
violence, but, because it was female-on-male violence, he was not sacked.
Then, on 24 February 2016, at about 6:50 AM, this same man, Rawdon
Christie, was the victim of an assault by his co-host, Nadine Chalmers-Ross.
Rawdon appeared to say something inaudible to her which clearly caused
her to hit or slap him on his thigh, although this was not completely
visible, because of the desk that they were sitting behind. Clearly,
she should have been fired, if not criminally charged, but nothing appears
to have happened to her – again because it was female-on-male
violence. In my view, this grotesque and persistent man-hatred on the
part of TVNZ should result in its total abolition.
You and the media need to set a non-discriminatory example. More importantly,
your behavior casts doubt on whether the Government’s intends
to implement any policy of equality and non-discrimination in domestic
violence enforcement. New Zealand will never be a democracy until and
unless everyone – from the top down – learns to treat women
just as severely as men. Otherwise, we should just wind back the clock
and return women to the status of non-voting, pampered children –
which is how they behave! |
