I could be a Florist.

All the flowers you like, unless you're on a bike!

I could be a florist
'Round the corner from Rye Lane
I'll be giving daisies to crazies
But, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe

Oh, I can give you flowers
At the end of every day
For the center of your table, a rainbow
In case you have people 'round to stay

Depending on the party you’re involved with, you might get treated a bit differently.

If you’ve held a senior position in the pink party, that used to be yellow, you might get name suppression for the most heinous of crimes. Regardless of whether or not there was much doubt of your alleged guilt.

But if you’re unfortunate enough to belong to a green party, and someone from a shop says you’re a big old meanie? Well that’s more than enough evidence and due process for the media - you’re guilty!

Laura Newcombe of Four Seasons Florists in Newtown has accused Green MP Julie Anne Genter of bullying. Photo Monique Ford.

Just to be clear I have no issue with the process that’s being followed after Julie Anne Genter crossed the floor in parliament. It’s entirely appropriate, but it shouldn’t mean that she’s subjected to other accusations without a reasonable level of scrutiny.

Yet that’s what happened last week when having suffered a momentary lapse in judgement, and apologised to the house, she found herself the target of anyone who might have a story to tell. Or an axe to grind.

Did you once see her at a traffic light and wave, and she didn’t wave back? This was your chance.

Or perhaps you heard her accent and didn’t like it? You could go on the radio and rage that she’s not from here. I’ve got just the station in mind. It starts with a ‘Z’ and ends with… much the same effect as a sledgehammer to the cranium.

Or maybe you’re a florist and you’re bloody furious about cycleways and there being fewer car parks? Go on, have at it. Nobody’s going to check whether what you say is true - so vent your spleen.

In his article Benjamin says the allegation had “surfaced”, although there’s no indication how.

I always wonder how these things come to light. Did the florist, Laura Newcombe, contact a politician, or the media? Had she perhaps mentioned it to someone?

The story was reproduced across the media, RNZ, Stuff, NZME, and Newshub. The florist’s version of events repeated time and again without, it appears, anyone looking into the person making the claims.

Was she a concerned citizen, or someone angry with a politician and the policies of their party?

Julie Anne Genter and Laura Newcombe. Image: Newshub.

As far as I can tell the story was first made public by Newshub’s Jenna Lynch. Below is the relevant section from her report, copied verbatim. Which seems to have been the approach of all the major news outlets.

"This is how she conducts herself, she is a bully," florist Laura Newcombe told Newshub.

Newcombe has had Four Seasons Florist for 30 years. Recently a cycleways been installed - removing car parks outside her shop.

"My income has been easily halved," she said.

Last week, Genter stopped by and Newcombe said the pair got into a heated exchange about Genter's advocacy for the cycleways. 

"She was very intimidating. She pulled out her phone, she put the phone camera right in my face and I was like 'Okay, you need to leave now' and then she started yelling and screaming over me that I didn't care about her kids cycling," Newcombe said. 

Julie Anne does not dispute that she got her phone out, but there was no information as to what prompted her to do so.

My initial thought was - if someone went into a shop, and there was an argument, do you think it would be more likely that the aggressor would take their phone out to record what was happening? Or the person being subjected to what they felt was unreasonable behaviour?

Laura Newcombe says Green MP Julie Anne Genter became angry when the two were having a vigourous discussion about the cycleway outside Newcombe's shop. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter

It seemed like we needed a bit more information.

Having seen screenshots of reviews for the Four Seasons Florist I checked out what was online. There were some positive reviews of course, nobody stays in business long if none of their customers are happy. But there were a surprisingly large number of negative ones that had been submitted over a long period of time.

Needless to say I’ve ignored anything posted last week, including the prankster who wrote, “Not easy to get to by bike so I ended up at other florists that are reachable by safe cycleways instead.” The following reviews were submitted prior to these events.

Hmm, well it does seem as though Laura is familiar with verbal abuse, but could it be that she was the abuser rather than the abusee? The media didn’t bother finding out.

It seems as though Laura has a history of responding quite angrily, some might say irrationally, to things that annoy her. Not only cycleways and cyclists, but customers with queries too. Still we probably need a wider sample…

Hmm I don’t wish to cast aspersions. Much. But it would rather appear that the person with anger issues might not be our passionate Green MP, but rather a florist with a reputation for treating her own customers with rudeness and disdain.

Not only is Laura given to repeated bouts of irrationally angry behaviour, and someone who doesn’t like cycleways, but as you can see in the next review she doesn’t like it when people use their phones either.

There are plenty more reviews in a similar vein. People shocked by the rudeness from Laura and the terrible customer experience of using the Four Seasons Florist. Some saying they’d never previously felt compelled to write a negative review.

But those are other people’s words, let’s hear from Laura in her own words:

You can make up your own mind about that, but there was certainly no doubt that Laura believes cyclists are out to get her. Despite the fact that she says there aren’t any.

Laura Newcombe may well have a genuine grievance with the council, which is fair enough. But it’s hard to believe that her views did not contribute to the confrontation that took place.

I feel really angry that the media ran this beat up without checking out both sides of the story, or what sort of person they were believing in order to declare Julie Anne guilty before the nation.

This florist has a history of acting unpleasantly towards customers and is angry about cycleways, and the reduction in car parking. The story as presented doesn’t stand up and it lacked proper investigation.

I’ve no idea which political party Laura Newcombe supports, although given her views on cycleways I think we can safely assume it’s not the Greens.

I’m not suggesting Laura’s a political plant, however given the scruples of certain political parties in our parliament would you put it past them to do something like that at another occasion?

It was shameful that this story was published without checking the reliability of the source. People see a headline, and that’s all that matters. Even in the event that there is a retraction or a correction, most won’t see it or bother to read it.

It’s this sort of thing that is causing people to lose trust in the media.

After all that confrontation here’s a surprisingly sweet, short song. I hope you like it.