Shaneel Lal: National Party protects Sam Uffindell and silences bullying victims

Sam Uffindell has a new lease on his political career, while his victims and alleged victims remain dismayed. Photo / Andrew Warner

OPINION

Sam Uffindell’s reputation rehabilitation campaign has started, describing accountability as baptism by fire. Uffindell is not the victim. Pretending he is, humanises him but antagonises those who he has hurt.

Is it really baptism by fire to hold Uffindell accountable for joining a group to viciously beat a junior student, leaving him bruised and traumatised? Uffindell admitted he has bullied and hurt others too. Uffindell has been reinstated to the National Party, earning $163,961 a year. That is water baptism. The man was granted a new lease on his political career, while his victims and alleged victims remain dismayed.

As Uffindell sits in his interview in an angelic white shirt decorated with a sad face, I wonder if I am meant to feel sorry for a bully. I do not feel an ounce of sadness for him. I empathise with his victims and alleged victims. Uffindell’s reinstatement and subsequent reputation rehabilitation campaign are deplorable. New Zealanders have no way to verify the reasons for Uffindell’s reinstatement.

Why would any victim of bullying believe they will receive help and their bully consequence if they spoke up? Victims of bullying across the country are watching someone who beat a kid, admitted to hurting others and was accused of abusive behaviour towards a woman at university become a legislator in our supreme Parliament. That sends a message of such indifference to victims’ experiences; it verges on impertinence.

Uffindell is an enigma riddled with a past of violently abusing a kid, whiteness, maleness and a National Party committed to protecting him. Uffindell said he was upfront with the National Party about the bullying incident during the selection process. Yet the National Party did not tell the voters about it.

Uffindell was cleared of additional bullying claims and welcomed back into the National Party. The National Party keeps the report by Maria Dew KC a secret. New Zealanders are expected to believe National Party leader Christopher Luxon when he says the report’s findings prove his MP’s actions did not amount to bullying. Most National MPs voted to reinstate Uffindell without ever looking at the report. Would they vote in favour of a bill without reading it?

Despite alleged victims saying they are happy for the report to be released to the public, Luxon says he won’t. Again, the National Party has silenced the alleged victims. It is not extraordinary to believe that the National Party has a vested interest in protecting its MPs. Where do the alleged victims turn to when the highest authorities have a conflict of interest in protecting the alleged bully?

In his maiden speech, Uffindell claimed that New Zealand has “a growing culture of lawlessness, lack of accountability, a sense of impunity, and significant underlying generational social problems”. A part of me wonders if he was thinking of his actions during his speech. The irony screams so loud it is deafening. It seems what Uffindell was trying to say was rules for thee but not for me. Uffindell becoming a champion of getting tough on crime in light of his lack of consequences is a cliche paradox for Pākehā men on the right.

Uffindell’s reputation rehabilitation campaign must stop if New Zealanders are not given the report’s findings. The National Party is demanding that New Zealanders believe Uffindell is a changed man based on information they never intend to release to us. Voters deserve that information to decide whether Uffindell gets to stay in Parliament at the next election or not. Show us what we are truly working with if Uffindell wants to reform his image. If not, then stop the theatrics.

Shaneel Shavneel Lal (they/them) was instrumental in the bill to ban conversion therapy in New Zealand. They are a law and psychology student, model and influencer.