Paula ‘Soprano’ Bennett (Herald on Sunday writes from the gutter)

PM expresses support for MP with gangster link
Prime Minister John Key has expressed "full confidence" in Social Development Minister Paula Bennett after it was revealed a violent street gang member was bailed to her house while he awaited trial. But a spokesman for Mr Key today said he had "full confidence" in Ms Bennett and ministers' and MPs' private lives should remain private. A spokesman for Ms Bennett said it was a "family issue". The man, Viliami Halaholo, has been jailed for causing grievous bodily harm, but his girlfriend - Bennett's 21-year-old daughter Ana - visits him once a fortnight in Mt Eden Prison. Their daughter Tiara-Lee is aged 2.

Ugh, what an ugly little rag the HOS is, remember that dreadful Carolyne Meng-Yee having the awfulness to ask Peter Davis if he liked having sex with Helen Clark? God how despicable to have your sex life asked about during an election that should have a media focused on asking what the fuck they intend to do if in power, not a media focused on how they fuck. How yucky, how trashy, how Herald on Sunday, the Sunday Newspaper you pick up after a sleazy night on the town and don’t want people seeing you reading at the café the next morning. Here we have an ‘exclusive’ where Paula Bennett is put on trial for her daughter having a relationship with a young guy whose been in trouble and Bennett having the compassion to put him up for a while. Is this really journalism? “Minister’s life with gang thug” screams the headline - WTF? Isn’t this just an example of how both political parties have fed the angry dogs of the electorate so much raw meat policy on law and order that the mere connection with that most despised cancerous tumour of society, da yuff gang, is enough to suddenly be the centre of attention with a “news” story from the HOS that sounds more like a late night Sensible Sentencing press release personally written by Garth McVicar after a couple of bottles of cheap sherry.

Da Yuff gang the “thug” was a member of was the “Thugs of Canal”, which sounds more like some sort of Venetian porn than organized crime, the HOS breathlessly informs us that the “TOC” reportedly has a “history of violence and intimidation, creating the risk inappropriate pressure could be brought to bear on the senior minister and her decisions”. Are you fucking kidding me, the TOC “reportedly” have a history of violence and intimidation and this yuff gang might threaten the Senior Minister Paula Bennett, isn’t “reportedly” journalistic euphemism for “anonymous bloke down pub told me”? This sounds more like a fantasy story dreamed up by the more royal blue bloods within the National hierarchy concerned someone of Bennett’s Westie class gets to be a Minister than any real security issue, didn’t we all see Paula kick some butt in her own neighbourhood last week, you think that woman would put up with some half-arsed yuff gang wannabee threaten her for one second? Pfft, there are questions the new Minister should be answering, but they sure as hell aren’t to do with who her daughter is in a relationship with by a sleazy news story aimed at capturing the media inspired loathing of da yuff gang cancer and injecting it via association into a Cabinet Minister. The questions Paula Bennett should be asked are what is Rodney Hides razor gang going to cut from welfare spending and has she been set up as a patsy to soft sell those deep welfare cuts? Who the Ministers Daughter dates pales within context of the real issues that confront the welfare issues of NZ, and it is those issues the media should be focused on asking.