Summarised by Centrist
Auckland councillor Julie Fairey has questioned whether a Free Speech Union event featuring a lesbian speaker should be allowed at a council-owned Proud Centre.
The union booked the Ellen Melville Centre for a discussion between AUT chancellor Rob Campbell and board member Ani O’Brien about whether public appointees may express political opinions and “who gets told to stay quiet”.
Fairey emailed council staff asking whether the booking was appropriate, describing O’Brien as “known to be opposed to transgender rights”.
She said the event was likely inconsistent with the venue’s Proud Centre status and imagined it would be a “conscious attempt” to create “controversy and division”.
Fairey also shared a Bluesky post encouraging people to email the centre. An attached email urged staff to cancel the event.
Free Speech Union executive director Jillaine Heather said the controversy had inadvertently demonstrated exactly why the discussion was needed.
“We could not have arranged a better illustration,” Heather said.
“Wednesday’s conversation asks who decides which views may be aired inside public institutions. A councillor has stepped forward to answer.”
Heather said O’Brien was “a gay woman” being treated as unsuitable for a council venue “on the grounds that the hall is welcoming to gay people”.
Auckland Council community director Rachel Kelleher said accepting a booking did not imply endorsement of an event.
Council venues were managed “in a non-discriminatory manner” and the council did “not take a position on the views of the hirer”, she said.
The union has reserved a seat for Fairey should she wish to attend.
Editor’s note: Councillor Fairey’s photograph accompanying the NZ Herald report showed her proudly wearing a Tino Rangatiratanga flag pin, a political and cultural symbol she is perfectly entitled to display.
The irony is that, while Fairey freely wears her own beliefs on her lapel, she has questioned whether people holding different lawful beliefs should be permitted to hire a ratepayer-owned room.
Read more over at The NZ Herald and FSU NZ
Image: Corey Fleming / NZ Herald. Reproduced for criticism and review.
