OPINION
Peter Allan Williams
Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines although verbalising thoughts on www.reality check.radio three days a week
peterallanwilliams.substack.com
There’s been quite the public spat here in the south about the chair of the Strath Taieri Community Board, a very rural part of the Dunedin City Council area.
The man’s name is Barry Williams and at some stage in recent weeks, he made a supposedly racist statement to a member of the public in a pub.
I say a supposedly racist statement because at no stage have we, the public, been told exactly what he said. There has been an investigation by the lawyer Steph Dhyrberg who concluded that a material breach of the Dunedin Council’s code of conduct had occurred, but again we as members of the public have no evidence about what was said.
The Dunedin City Council has voted to censure Barry Williams and even invited him to resign. He refused saying “what the f *** for.” The DCC also said that Steph Dhyrberg’s investigation would not be released to protect the identity of the victim.
Well, that’s just a cop-out. The council could easily let the public know what was said, and the circumstances of what apparently was a private conversation, without identifying the so-called victim. I say so-called because we’re in no position to know if she was victimized or just on the end of some robust language in a private conversation.
This is the problem with this whole story. We are asked to believe the media that this was a racist slur. How can we possibly know if we’re not told what the slur was? Isn’t the media supposed to tell the full story? If the alleged slur is not reported and quoted, how can we know it was a slur?
It’s like the question of a tree falling over in a forest when nobody is there to see or hear it. Did it make a noise?
So do we just have to believe the media that it was a slur? Considering the level of trust in the media these days, is that wise?
The Mayor of Dunedin Jules Radich gave a hint of what may or may not have been said when he said in an interview that the comment by Mr Williams happened in a pub and that Mr Williams didn’t even remember it had happened.
So was that the truth or not? We’ll never know because that comment has the hand ringers on the case of Jules Radich and the Mayor has now had to make all sorts of grovelling apologies because he, according to the hand ringers, trivialised the original incident.
But how can we know if Barry Williams said something racist or not? Until the actual words he used in a pub, apparently after a meal mix-up, are reported to the public we are left with an impression of the left-leaning media again running a hit job against a couple of middle-aged and white male politicians.
Barry Williams may have said something absolutely awful and dreadful but until we know what it was, how can we judge it?