It’s the story that just won’t die: how Avi Yemini was prevented from visiting New Zealand, and the role the NZ Herald and TVNZ played in it all. On top of that we can reveal that Immigration Minister Michael Wood’s office were demanding updates on the saga as it unfolded, contrary to their flat denials to media.
To recap, Avi Yemini, a journalist for Rebel News, was planning to come to Wellington in August to cover a large protest in Wellington. He was just doing his job, something our own media have failed to do (particularly since they sold their souls to the Ardern regime for $55 million).
Remember, too, some months later Newshub ran an article that revealed more details about the case than those which we had been provided from Official Information Act requests. We made an OIA request for all the documents that were released to Newshub.
An alert for border officials to intercept far-right Australian commentator Avi Yemini if he tried to travel to New Zealand was prompted by a media request to Immigration NZ, documents reveal.
Newshub
What we can now reveal, but Newshub didn’t, is that a NZ Herald journalist, Akula Sharma, sparked the controversy by emailing Immigration New Zealand with what can only be called a defamatory series of allegations.
It is all revealed when Immigration scrambles to answer her questions and allegations. This occurred a full three days before Avi Yemeni even went to the airport at Melbourne.
In her email Akula Sharma describes Avi Yemini and Rukshan Fernando as “two far-right commentators and misinformation super spreaders” and suggests they are “posing as reporters”. All of which is disinformation in and of itself, the irony escaping this so-called journalist from the NZ Herald. Sadly, this is all too prevalent where so-called journalists insert pejorative and subjective views from their own limited world view into how they approach a story. In this case the bias of Akula Sharma and the NZ Herald is on display now for us all to see.
She went on to then describe what is only a summary offence that garnered Avi Yemini a modest fine as a “serious conviction for assault” and then compounds her defamation of Avi Yemini to claim that he has “more domestic violence convictions”.
We know, of course, from the inquiries made by NZ Police of Interpol Australia that there is just one conviction and it was a summary offence that warranted a fine and zero prison time. Hardly the serious and multiple offences Akula Sharma claimed. Interestingly, the request “took some leverage” to obtain:
What ensued within Immigration as a result of Akula Sharma’s email was a witch hunt to fit facts to the false picture that Akula Sharma presented to Immigration. Hilariously they exclaim that this is the first they’ve heard of this, and honestly state that it was a “bit too early to confirm what action to take”. That would all change when NZ Police decided to illegally request Immigration prevent Avi Yemini from coming to New Zealand.
Immigration then embarks on what they call “online sleuthing”, although most normal people would call it an internet search.
You’d have thought that finding out Avi Yemini has been wrongly arrested and received an apology from Victoria Police might have given them a hint to tread carefully. It didn’t, and they set off down a path assuming Avi Yemini would apply for a “resident class” visa, when he was only going to be here for a few days.
Everything that occurred after this was based on that erroneous assumption and headed Immigration into a cul-de-sac of their own making. Immigration, acting on a series of defamatory accusations from a NZ Herald journalist, then went out of their way to assist Police with their request to prevent Avi Yemini from coming to New Zealand by finding anything that they could use to justify stopping him.
Again, this is all three days before Avi Yemini was even due to leave. It appears that there is no natural justice for Avi Yemeni.
On the Monday morning, 22 August 2022, one Immigration official, border manager Gray McGilligan, notes that Avi Yemeni “does have some kind of journalistic credentials”. This however is ignored as Immigration presses on with satisfying the Police request to stop them.
Less than an hour later, McGilligan, says that “The character thing for yemini is a bit thin”. Again, this moment of clarity is ignored as Immigration stumbles towards banning Avi Yemeni.
Later that morning more information comes to light, some of it erroneous, like the claim that Avi Yemini appears to be the owner of Rebel News and that information was gleaned from social media. It is also revealed that Avi Yemini had previously travelled to New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes.
You would have thought that knowing Avi Yemini, as an Australian citizen, had travelled to New Zealand previously might have given them pause for reflection. But no, Immigration by this time had developed concrete thinking and were intent on banning him from New Zealand. The false information, gleaned by “online sleuthing” of social media regarding the ownership of Rebel News, takes hold: this time from the Immigration official who was driving the decision-making process, Sareem Mohammed:
We can see that concrete thinking in the next document, where they are still focussing on a “resident class” visa and almost all of their information from “online sleuthing” is wrong:
They even considered a waiver briefly, but failed to use that escape path, instead continuing on towards banning, despite the fact that as an Australian citizen he needed neither a visa nor a waiver as his summary offences did not meet the threshold for triggering the waiver request provisions. Immigration still plough on ahead with satisfying the demands of the NZ Police to prevent his arrival.
Immigration also was bending over backwards to satisfy news cycles for 1News and Newshub:
The above email was sent two minutes after they received the following email from TVNZ’s Australian correspondent, Andrew McFarlane.
Again, we see a mainstream media journalist, and by extension their organisation, defaming and smearing Avi Yemini and Rebel News. At the time of writing, and despite the email being opened four times, Andrew McFarlane has not responded to my queries, even after I tweeted the questions to him. You can see why it appears that the mainstream media are in lock step with the Ardern regime and are not unbiased players. Their questions reveal where their story is going to go. They are part of the problem we have with distrust of media in New Zealand.
Now, this is where things get very interesting. On 23 August 2022, the day after Avi Yemini was prevented from coming to New Zealand, all of a sudden Immigration is scrambling. Why? Because the minister’s office is now involved.
And it appears not once but twice, in separate documents. Clearly, there is now a political angle in all of this.
Which is interesting, because the day before Jacinda Ardern was professing that this had nothing to do with the minister:
Two days later, after we leaked the Interpol memo that many people online including media claimed was fake, it is mentioned in correspondence. It has triggered media inquiries, which strangely result in no news stories; this is despite the leak revealing that NZ Police breached the Interpol rules and constitution and were acting extra-judicially in suborning Immigration to do their dirty work. Not a single mainstream outlet covered this, despite the evidence in the Interpol memo being confirmed in this and other documentation.
As you can see these documents reveal much about the concrete thinking, the missed opportunities and the determination of Immigration to deliver a result the NZ Police demanded. It is an appalling display of bureaucratic intransigence and illegal actions by the NZ Police along with media and political meddling.
Neither Akula Sharma nor Andrew McFarlane returned messages as we sought explanations over their journalistic ethics. That says much.
One wonders though if this could all have been avoided if people inside Immigration had followed the advice of Gray McGilligan and this revealing note from Judy Cunningham, the Operations Manager Transition:
What remains to be seen is what correspondence exists between the minister’s office and Immigration/MBIE. After all, the minister’s office wanted answers “ASAP”. Needless to say, Official Information Act requests have been filed to reveal that part of the puzzle.
One thing is for sure, had the NZ Herald not made their accusations as they did, it is highly likely that Avi Yemini would have come to Wellington, recorded a few interviews and gone back to Melbourne without any fuss or bother. This saga, though, has shown up the mainstream media as political activists, defamers and smearers. Immigration has been shown to be reactive, and concrete thinkers.
Avi Yemeni couldn’t come to New Zealand, but he was able to travel with no problems to Dubai and Israel this month. That alone shows just how wrongheaded Immigration has been.
Stay tuned, there is more to come.
OIA response from MBIE rega… by Cam Slater
This saga clearly shows just how embedded in the government narrative our mainstream media have become. They are clearly compromised as these documents show. That is why we are building out our own news gathering abilities. So that the new media can be held to account as much as the politicians. We need your help so that we can conduct more investigative reporting like this article.
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