Summarised by Centrist
A One NZ advertising actor who publicly shared Winston Peters’ home address says she “regrets” doing so.
Acacia O’Connor, an actor and pro-Palestine activist, livestreamed outside the Foreign Minister’s Auckland home, inviting others to join.
Hours later, a window was smashed.
O’Connor told RNZ she didn’t condone violence but admitted “in hindsight” sharing the street “was an oversight.” One NZ promptly dropped her from its ads, saying the stunt “put people’s safety at risk.”
O’Connor told Newstalk ZB she saw nothing wrong with protesters using loudhailers late into the night outside Peters’ house, even with children present. “I shared the street that we were on to come and join us for a peaceful protest,” O’Connor said.
“We were singing and chanting,” she said. “The mood was full of love.” When challenged that Peters’ partner, a woman in her mid 70s, was home alone, would have found the protesters’ actions intimidating, O’Connor insisted, “I don’t see it that way.”
When asked if there would be further protests outside Peters’ home, O’Connor said, “ I am not an authority on that.”
Peters called the acts “a disgrace,” saying they caused distress to families and “corrupted” the protest’s moral legitimacy. He contrasted the left’s outrage over alleged right-wing “incitement” with their silence when one of their own targeted an opponent’s private home.
When asked if he thought it was the right thing to do for One to terminate O’Connor’s contract, Peters replied, “Yes, I do.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said O’Connor “lacked basic humanity,” calling it “completely inappropriate to give people’s private addresses out on social media.” She urged Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick to “call the dogs off” a metaphor Swarbrick condemned as “bullying.”
