Summarised by Centrist
After a US summit on far-left terrorism, New Zealand officials said behaviour matters more than political labels. The White House called it the “transnational threat of Radical Left terrorism”, while independent researcher Penny Marie noted NZ-funded material classifies gender-critical activism as extremism.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Western governments had developed a “blind spot” towards violence from the political left after spending 25 years focused on radical Islamic extremism.
He cited riots following George Floyd’s death, attacks on immigration officers and the assassination of activist Charlie Kirk.
New Zealand sent deputy head of mission Daniel Mellsop rather than a minister, with no Beehive announcement.
“Rather than focus on descriptions, the most important point is that we all have a role to play in reporting concerning behaviour,” NZSIS Minister Chris Penk said.
The NZSIS does not use “left-wing” or “right-wing” labels and says no ideology dominates New Zealand’s threat environment. The national threat level remains “possible”.
Marie argues this caution over political labels contrasts with New Zealand’s government-funded Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism programme.
The programme supported an “Anti-Transgender Extremism” booklet produced by Gender Minorities Aotearoa and hosted on the Police website.
Marie says the booklet places gender-critical women’s organisations alongside white supremacists and political parties supporting fascism. It also cites claims that opposition to transgender ideology represents an attempt to eradicate transgender identity.
“A counter-terrorism fund, built to stop the next Christchurch, ended up bankrolling language that places concerned mothers on a continuum with genocide,” Marie writes.
A 2025 report by the US Centre for Strategic and International Studies found 2025 was the first year in more than three decades that left-wing attacks outnumbered attacks from the violent far right, although left-wing violence remained well below historical levels of right-wing and jihadist violence.
Read more over at The NZ Herald and Penny Marie NZ
