KEY POINTS:
I would like to thank Fran O'Sullivan for my sudden promotion, in Wednesday's Herald, to "Public Service Association Boss". For a moment I thought I was headed for a pay rise, but this was dispelled later in the article when Ms O'Sullivan stated that "someone - possibly his PSA bosses - should tell Sheehan some basic facts".
I think it is perhaps Ms O'Sullivan who needs to be clear about some basic facts here.
I am not a boss but merely an employee of the PSA who is currently on leave and acting in a private capacity to assist my family who have suffered a terrible - and totally preventable - tragedy. I am acutely aware of these possible conflict of interest allegations that have been raised by people like Ms O'Sullivan and Michael Laws, and I refute them absolutely.
This form of gutter journalism - blame the victim and attempt to discredit their supporters - is the strategy employed by public relations companies attempting damage control or seeking to promote unpopular views. That Ms O'Sullivan takes this line should be no surprise to anyone.
Let's be very clear here about who has the conflict of interest and an agenda to push. Ms O'Sullivan is chairperson of the New Zealand Apec Business Coalition. This organisation's website promotes its mission as to "lobby on issues associated with trade and investment liberalisation". Clearly, any organisation that promotes economic liberalisation is going to fight like hell against any moves to greater regulation, even if that regulation will save lives.
This article is just the first shot in that salvo, and before criticising others Ms O'Sullivan should perhaps disclose just what her interests are in this matter.
The ethics of journalism demand that you get the story right. So let me correct a couple of other basic facts that were distorted in the article.
I did not break an "exclusive" story to Radio New Zealand. I contacted RNZ late on the night of my aunt's death in an attempt to have the Muliaga family's power restored. Their wife and mother had just died and they were grieving in the dark.
Mercury could not be contacted after hours, so in desperation I phoned RNZ seeking an after-hours contact for the company, and the story spiralled from there. When a Mercury rep appeared live on RNZ my family were still grieving in the dark.
The police did not seek to speak to Mr Muliaga's sons with a lawyer present. In fact the situation was quite to the contrary. The police interviewed the boys for six hours the day after their mother's death, and a further four hours the day after.
At that earlier stage the family had no lawyer, and I attended the police station to provide support for the boys during this ordeal. Despite my repeated requests I was refused entry to the station on both occasions, and the boys were interviewed without any whanau support or legal representation.
They were interviewed in English, which is not their first language, at a time in which their shock and grief was absolute and they would naturally have been thinking and wanting to speak in their native tongue.
Despite my claims about cultural insensitivity being widely reported, on the day before the funeral - while Folole's body was at the house and the family was mourning - the police were door-knocking up and down the family's street. Where is the empathy?
I am not simply a relative by marriage. This displays an ignorance of Polynesian culture. The European concept of in-laws does not exist in the Samoan culture. When one marries into a Samoan family one is fully accepted as a member of that family, and assumes the responsibilities that come with this acceptance, including the responsibility to provide your skills to help the family when asked.
Folole and her children celebrated Christmas Day with our family at my home. Mr Muliaga could not attend because he was working - earning the $12 an hour he used to put food on the table for his family.
I love this family and they love me. I make no apologies for using my skills to get their tragedy into the public eye. It is a story that had to be told. The kids have the right to know the circumstances that led to their mother's death, and the public has the responsibility to ensure that no other Kiwi dies as a consequence of poverty.
I appeared on Close Up earlier this week and shared a dressing room with the lovely Suzanne Paul, who had won Dancing with the Stars on the same evening my aunt died. As we were chatting I was struck by the delicious irony that this woman who owed creditors almost a million dollars was a national celebrity being feted by the public on TV - on the very same evening my family, who owed $168, was sitting in the dark with their mother dead.
* Brenden Sheehan is spokesman for the Muliaga family.
