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Purge poison from politics
Chris
Trotter
Forty years ago
. . . the political
smear campaign was
the speciality of the
Right.
I
’m writing this column on the 40th
anniversary of Norman Kirk’s death.
As someone who cast his first vote in
1975, it is tempting to eulogise the New
Zealand of 40 years ago and to compare it,
favourably, with the scandal-ridden
country of today.
Certainly ‘‘Big Norm’’ was an
extraordinary political leader against
whom very few – if any – of today’s
politicians could hope to measure up.
One has only to watch his 1973 interview
with David Frost (available online at NZ
On Screen) to realise just how much the
New Zealand electorate once demanded
of their prime ministers.
We must, however, be cautious, and
not only because, as LP Hartley wrote:
‘‘The past is a foreign country: they do
things differently there.’’
Beset as we are with a rapidly
spreading and intensifying political
scandal, we would do well to bear in
mind that although the New Zealand of
40 years ago was very different from the
New Zealand of today, it was also, in
‘‘dirty politics’’ terms, surprisingly
similar. Hartley’s caution
notwithstanding, they did many things
the same.
Forty years ago, far from being the
preferred weapon of the Left (as today’s
Prime Minister, John Key, alleges) the
political smear campaign was the
speciality of the Right.
When the newspaper Truth (the
Whaleoil blog of its day) published a
front-page story alleging Kirk’s
involvement in a sinister plot to socialise
the New Zealand economy, it was written
in exactly the same belligerent style as
Cameron Slater’s postings.
Another instantly recognisable aspect
of ‘‘dirty politics’’ 1970s-style was the
Security Intelligence Service’s leaking of
sensitive information to right-wing
editors and journalists. Then, as now,
they needed no further instruction on
how to put such material to good use.
Most of all, however, the period
leading up to and following Kirk’s death
was characterised by a sense of powerful
yet unidentified forces moving
unobserved behind the scenes.
A very similar characterisation of the
political zeitgeist was one of the most
memorable parts of Nicky Hager’s
speech to a packed hall of interested
Aucklanders last Wednesday.
In explaining his reasons for writing
Dirty Politics he referenced exactly the
same feeling of unease about the way
politics was being conducted; the same
conviction that apparently isolated
political events were, in some unrevealed
and sinister way, connected.
The anxieties of the ‘‘screaming Left-
wing conspiracy theorists’’ of the mid-
1970s concerning the malignant political
machinations of the ‘‘Kirk Years’’ were
eventually proved right.
Fortunately, Hager has not had to
wait 40 years to have his worst fears
confirmed. Thanks to the intervention of
a ‘‘White Hat’’ hacker known as
Rawshark, New Zealand’s foremost
investigative journalist has been able to
demonstrate that the dark arts of attack
politics are being applied in 2014 with no
less devastating effect than in 1974-75.
The unfolding revelations, in which so
much of the action has been concentrated
in the offices of the Prime Minister and
the Minister of Justice, have inevitably
invited comparisons with the Watergate
Scandal.
That story also reached its crescendo
in August 1974 when, for the first and
only time in US history, a serving
President was forced to resign his office.
It is worth recalling, given the
proximity of our own general election,
that the exposure of the Watergate
burglary in June 1972 had no impact
whatsoever on the outcome of the
presidential election held in November of
that year.
Indeed, President Richard Nixon was
emphatically re-elected – winning 49 of
the US’s 50 states.
The slow unravelling of the scandal
and its subsequent cover-up did,
however, transform Nixon’s second term
into a political and constitutional
nightmare.
As a result his administration was
effectively paralysed and the US gravely
weakened.
The only positive aspect of Watergate
was the way in which the venerable US
Constitution was able to defuse what
could have exploded into a full-blown
‘‘legitimation crisis’’.
Democracies, much more than other
political systems, depend upon their
citizens’ belief that the people they elect
to public office are decent, conscientious
and law-abiding.
If high ethical standards are not
maintained; if citizens become convinced
that their elected representatives are
engaged in large-scale and largely
unreproved corruption; then the
legitimacy of both the government and
the state is called into question.
Is New Zealand’s unwritten and
historically untested constitution
capable of rising to the challenge of this
present political scandal as effectively as
America’s rose to the challenge of
Watergate?
Can the Prime Minister and his
Cabinet be relied upon to pass judgement
on themselves?
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974.
Norman Kirk died 22 days later on
August 31.
That’s when it began: 40 years ago;
that’s when the poisons currently
disfiguring our body politic first entered
the nation’s bloodstream.
In the polling booths on September 20
can we purge ourselves of those poisons?
Will we vote to impeach?
THE PRESS, Tuesday, September 2, 2014 A11
WE SAY:
The tragedy is a dark day for the public service
... and a dark day for Ashburton.
You read it @press.co.nz
You said it @press.co.nz
Hager’s relationship with hacker revealed
‘‘So ... Hager is in it for the money, but the right-wing business
interests he has embarrassed are in it for the public good?’’
Clown pioneer: Thomas Petschner is the founder of the Clown Doctors programme in New Zealand. Photo: STACY SQUIRES/FAIRFAX NZ
The benefits of
clowning around
Laughing can
block pain,
increase circulation,
decrease blood
pressure, relax
muscles, overall
making you feel
better.
Medical response team: The Clown Doctors get together before visiting patients.
Christchurch’sClown
Doctors celebratefive
yearsofmedical laughter
thisweek.Theywould
like todomore,butthey
needhelp,writes
ProfessorTHOMAS
PETSCHNER.
I
t has been five years since I first put
on my red nose and began spreading
joy and laughter in Christchurch and
Princess Margaret hospitals. I’m so
proud of what our Clown Doctors
have achieved since then.
We’ve spread to Auckland and
Wellington and are helping to
revolutionise the environment in which
healthcare is being delivered. We’ve
come so far in the last five years, and yet
there’s still so much more we can do.
People still ask me if there really is a
connection between laughter and your
health. That’s like asking whether the
Earth is actually flat. Even the Ancient
Greeks knew the healing effects of
laughter. Now there are 40 years of hard
scientific evidence proving the positive
effects of smiling and laughing on the
human body and mind.
But you don’t have to read academic
journals, just watch a child who is
distracted by a Clown Doctor and not
noticing the nurse taking blood. Who can
question the benefits after seeing a
previously depressed, uncommunicative
elderly patient suddenly get up and join
in with others singing and dancing
around the room? I’m privileged to have
witnessed this and so much more.
It’s easy to stay motivated when my
job deals in smiles and laughter and
yields results like these. But it doesn’t
mean things are always easy.
As I performed medical clowning
relief work around Christchurch in the
days immediately after February 22, 2011
you could feel the tension everywhere. It
was a heavy presence over the whole
city. People needed permission to laugh
because there was absolutely nothing to
laugh about. I’m honoured to have
shared smiles and laughter with the
brave men and women in our emergency
services, and those who answered the
international cry for help.
After spending an afternoon in ‘‘Camp
Hollywood’’ with some firefighters from
Los Angeles, an Australian search and
rescue team came over to ask if they
could have a Clown Doctor visit next.
Three years on, the 2014 All Right
survey shows 64 per cent of us are still
grieving and 35 per cent have more
health issues than before the quakes.
There is a real need for Clown Doctors in
Christchurch, arguably more than
anywhere else in New Zealand.
Many people are still trying to find
reasons to laugh. Children are arriving
in hospital with compromised immune
systems. They’ve dealt with earthquakes,
aftershocks, flooding, and many are still
living in damaged homes, all of which
increase the risks of infection and
disease. According to the University of
Canterbury, as many as one in five kids
has signs of post-traumatic stress
disorder.
Stress wears you down, diminishes
your immune system, and puts pressure
on your cardiovascular system, which
can increase your chances of suffering a
heart attack.
There’s a high demand for our
services from hospitals like Burwood,
where we don’t visit, while Princess
Margaret and Christchurch hospitals
want us to come more often.
There’s more to it than just having a
laugh. Laughing can block pain, increase
circulation, decrease blood pressure,
relax muscles, overall making you feel
better. If you’re de-stressed, you recover
faster and require less pain medication,
regardless of the underlying illness.
If patients are relaxed, the hospital
staff benefits. Families feel better
knowing their loved ones are happier
and receiving some extra care, so the
whole community benefits because your
friends and family are out of hospital
sooner, allowing for more efficient use of
health resources. The results of medical
clowning are backed up by science and
moving personal testimonies, the need is
very real, and hospitals want us. The
only thing holding us back is a lack of
funding.
Fundraising in Christchurch has been
difficult since the earthquakes as there
are so many demands and increased
needs to support our community. Many
businesses are rebuilding and don’t have
large reserves for sponsorship. On the
other hand, some are booming and have
never been so busy.
Lots of charities are doing great work,
but there’s only so much grant money to
go around.
Nationally, we have a successful
operation. In Auckland and Wellington
our Clown Doctors are visiting hospitals
several times a week, but in five years we
haven’t been able to similarly expand our
programme in Christchurch.
It’s my dream to start visiting a new
hospital each year, but we can’t do it
alone. Clown Doctors are professional
artists specially trained in the art of
medical clowning, and we’re proud to not
charge hospitals for our service.
On April 7, we celebrated New
Zealand Smile Day by visiting extra
hospitals who don’t usually receive our
services.
They all loved having us and want
regular Clown Doctor visits.
However, where we get funding
determines where we can extend our
programme.
Given the great need in Christchurch,
it’s our hope that we can expand our
services here, to help share a smile with
those who have gone through so much.
Your support would be the best fifth
birthday present I could imagine and ask
for.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
❯❯❯❯ Professor Thomas Petschner is the
founder and chief executive of the Clown
Doctors New Zealand Charitable Trust, and a
director of the International Institute for
Medical Clowning. For more information see
clowndoctors.org.nz.