KEY POINTS:
I can't stand cowards and the CYF Watch blog site is full of them.
This is the blog set up by CYF clients to name and shame social workers they feel have done them wrong.
The internet, a marvellous technological aid to knowledge and understanding, is also made for vicious, small-minded cretins who lack the balls to put their names to their nasty comments and innuendo.
A couple of examples of their posts: Anonymous talks of "a troll of a woman, five foot two in shoes and an ideal Weight Watchers before-model".
Another Anonymous said: "I know the fat pig. More chins than a Chinese phone book. [If she was in a car crash] I'd piss on her."
They hide behind banal user names or the more prosaic Anonymous and, free from being held to account, can vent their respective spleens. Many stories have been broken thanks to the net. I guess blogs are the yang to the political spin doctors' yin.
But the fact that people can tell lies or give biased one-sided versions of complex issues is a real problem.
I've got things wrong in the past. As a talkback host and newspaper columnist, I have no doubt I've offended, possibly appalled, some people. But you know who I am and where I am. My name and photograph identify me as the author of these (occasionally) half-baked opinions.
Although there appear to be some genuine stories of incompetence and inexplicable bureaucratic intransigence on the blog offered by people willing to put their names to their experiences, most of the nasty little people contributing to the anti-CYF blog aren't willing to be identified. For that reason, the site should be shut down. Along with any site that doesn't identify its contributors.
If these malicious, vindictive individuals are as appalling and as poorly educated as their rants indicate, they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near small children. On first reading, I'm with the social workers.
That doesn't mean there aren't genuine issues that could and, indeed, should be raised. Government departments can develop unhealthy cultures - look at the shake-up at the Inland Revenue Department after the suicide of a man who believed he was being hounded by an over-zealous department employee.
If there is a prevailing orthodoxy, as some contributors to the blog allege, that gets in the way of the best result, then that needs to be changed. And given the enormous amounts of money being thrown into running CYF, we could ask whether or not we're getting value for money from this department.
I'm sure CYF isn't perfect. I don't know. I've never had any dealings with them. Most of us, thank God, never will. But on a daily basis these social workers are dealing with the mad, the bad and the unbearably sad.
Of course emotions are going to run high if some ghastly cow accuses her husband or partner of abusing the kids during an acrimonious break-up. Or if some poor thing is trying to keep her sanity in the face of too many kids, not enough money, not enough sleep and not enough support. Or if a man thinks that beating his missus is a perfectly acceptable way of modifying her behaviour. Or if there's an addict in the family.
When these hapless individuals aren't prepared to take responsibility for the mess they've made of their lives, is it any wonder they shoot the messenger? Instead of blaming the social workers for the fact that the girl you chose to have a child with is a P addict, how about asking whether you might be, at least, a co-author of your own misfortunes.
And don't tell me to get into the real world. The real world is not one where women get beaten up by their men and allow their kids to become collateral damage. The real world is not one where kids are beaten, half-starved and neglected. And the real world is not one where social workers are a part of day-to-day life.
Trying to pretend this aberrant behaviour is normal is only going to give people more excuses for behaving the way they do. Just think for a moment how you would feel being the social worker assigned to the Jayden Headley case. A lying woman with a vendetta against her ex-partner. A father who flatly refuses to walk away from his son, no matter how easy that would make his life. And a damaged 6-year-old who faces an uncertain future. Try making a happy family out of that.
When I criticised the blog on radio this week, I received an instant email from CYF Watch telling me to argue the issues, not sidetrack everyone with ad hominem arguments. In other words, play the ball, not the man. The CYF Watch authors would do well to follow their own advice. By attacking individuals, they're undermining what may be genuine concerns.
