NBR Weekend Rumble: The not-so-merry Christmas Island

This week, The Rumble sunk its collective teeth into the New Zealand citizens detained at the Christmas Island detention centre.

Sparks flew as Nick Grant, Nathan Smith, Chelsea Armitage, Deborah LaHatte and newcomer Chris Coomer, mulled over the topic that dominated headlines this week.

John Key’s “you’re backing the rapists,” comment was top-of-mind this week. But before the ethics of his jeer were discussed, The Rumble addressed the genesis of his comments.

Despite Mr Key’s assertion, it was later revealed that exactly zero inmates currently detained at Christmas Island are rapists, and a further zero are murders.

A Rumbler suggests that despite their crimes, it does not constitute their detainment as their freedom itself is being violated

“[The inmates] are being kept in arguably inhumane conditions,” one Rumbler says.

United Future leader Peter Dunne described the detention facilities as “concentration camps.”

“The response of the New Zealand government has been, from the point of many people, has been appalling. There has been a complete lack of a government doing its duty. Its duty should be by its citizens regardless of what they may, or may not, have been guilty of.”

This response was met by an almost collective, “hear, hear!”  

Almost.

“Why should John Key have gotten involved in this, if the [detainees] don’t want to come back?” a sceptical Rumbler remarked.

“Because they’re our citizens and they’re being locked up,” another commented.

This is an issue Labour’s Kelvin Davis has been spearheading, and what eventually led to John Key yelling that opposition MPs are “backing the rapists.”

A comment that echoed through national and international headlines.   

As well as his comments being factually incorrect, one Rumbler suggested they were offensive to the one in three women in New Zealand who have experienced physical or sexual violence, according to Women’s Refuge.

This was a sentiment shared by many opposition MPs, who stood up in Parliament and told the Speaker they were offended by the prime minister’s comments after relating their own experiences of sexual assault.

Despite this, one Rumbler suggested it’s the Speaker’s job to keep order, and keep order is what he did.

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