8 July 2015 – Prime TV’s “Back Benches”:
THIS WEEK ON PRIME TV’s “BACK BENCHES”: Watch Wallace Chapman, Damian Christie, the Back Benches Panel and special guests discuss the week’s hottest topics!
NON, JE NE REGRETTE RIEN: We don’t think Pebbles Hooper will be singing this Edith Piaf classic this week after saying “natural selection” was at work after a woman and her three children died of carbon monoxide poisoning in Ashburton last week. Though, her comments were thoughtless and hurtful, she is hardly the first to put her foot in it on social media. Should there be repercussions for what you say on social media? Is public shaming enough? And should it be possible for you lose your job for what you say in your private life? And should the tradition of being able to speak freely under Parliamentary privilege be reviewed?
A SPORTING CHANCE: Getting your hands on Super Rugby tickets over the weekend or All Blacks vs Samoa game, you’d have to be lucky or rich. Hucksters flogging $35 tickets on trade me for hundreds of dollars. Although music fans have been bemoaning ticket scalpers for years, is it time for the Government to get involved? Should we put restrictions on scalpers? Or should the market determine what we should bear?
ARE TEACHERS LAZY?: 15-year-old Napier Girls’ High Student Anela Pritchard thinks so. The teen’s speech, while no Gettysburg Address, has certainly raised hackles, earned criticism and garnered praise with phrases such as, “Teachers are PAID to TEACH us.. not paid to hand out a piece of paper with words on it and sit around and do nothing!!!!!!!” and “They most likely, if anything really, just do it for the pay check. I’m not saying all teachers do, but the majority of them appear to be that way.” Does she have a point? Are the majority of teachers there just for the pay check?
There are two ways to get in on the political pub action:
First, you can join the live audience in Wellington’s iconic Backbencher Pub on Wednesday, 8th of July at 6pm. Filming begins around 6:15pm.
Or watch us that night on PRIME TV at 10:40pm!
Repeats on Thursday at 2pm.
Plus, Follow us on Facebook & YouTube (BackBenchesTV) or on Twitter @BackBenchesTV.
Our Panel: Green Party MP Denise Roche, Labour MP Phil Twyford, and National MP Paul Foster-Bell.
“It’s like a rock gig with everyone waiting for the band to start,” -Grant Smithies, Sunday Star Times (14 June 2015)