Dr Muriel Newman
Most New Zealanders will have watched last week’s Albert Park demonstration against British woman’s rights campaigner ‘Posie Parker’ with alarm and disgust, as a surging mob of howling rainbow rights activists threatened to crush her, while the Police stood by and did nothing.
The division, violence and anger that was on display that day, will be an enduring legacy of the Ardern-Hipkins Labour Government.
Instead of advocating the democratic ideal of equality and unity, Labour has championed diversity and division.
A hard-core socialist who was World President of a communist youth movement when elected to our Parliament in 2008 – a position she continued to hold for a further 15 months – the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern heavily promoted the divisive agenda of identity politics.
This Marxist philosophy shifts the struggle for social justice away from the working class to the so-called oppressed groups in society based on identifying features such as race, gender, and sexuality.
As Auckland University’s Professor Elizabeth Rata explains, “Victimhood was subsequently understood as oppression by colonisation, the patriarchy, and ‘Western’ culture generally – an oppression experienced by ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, women, gays, and religious minorities rather than the capitalist exploitation of working class people.”
As well as dividing society by appeasing identity groups, Jacinda Ardern embraced authoritarianism. Claiming to be the sole source of truth, she breached human rights through unlawful lockdowns and illegal vaccine mandates. Imposing an unauthorised He Puapua agenda, she replaced democracy with totalitarian tribal rule. And she threatened an oppressive ‘hate speech’ regime that would have criminalised anyone criticising groups defined by gender, sexual orientation, race, age, disability, employment status, family status, religion, or political opinion.
On top of that, with her ‘dob in your neighbour’ philosophy, and a ‘picking winners’ approach to government spending, Jacinda Ardern deeply divided our hitherto egalitarian society with its proud tradition of ‘live and let live’ and ‘give everyone a fair go’.
This is the New Zealand Chris Hipkins inherited when he became Prime Minister in January, and while he’s assured the public he will undo some of the damage created by his predecessor, to date he’s done nothing.
As well as embedding the politics of division within our legislative and regulatory framework, Labour has fanned the flames of discord through vicious gutter rhetoric.
The Immigration Minister Michael Wood exemplified this with his despicable “river of filth” description of the doctors, nurses, teachers and others protesting at Parliament against unlawful vaccine mandates.
He was at it again when explaining the trans community’s attempt to prevent Posie Parker from entering the country had failed:
“I find many of her views repugnant, and am concerned by the way in which she courts some of the most vile people and groups around including white supremacists. As we look towards her events for this coming weekend, the welfare and safety of our transgender community is front of mind… Police have advised they will also be in attendance to ensure public safety. I condemn her inflammatory, vile and incorrect worldviews, and will always stand alongside those New Zealanders who use their own right to free speech against those who wish to take society backwards.”
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, a member of the LGBTQI+ community, also piled in:
“I find her views and statements abhorrent. Her bigotry is dangerous and disingenuous. As a country we need to keep our trans community close, and support them through this time. The hateful language is the same that was directed at gays and lesbians in years gone by. Its the same misinformation and lies that destroyed lives and broke apart families. I for one will never let that rhetoric take hold. We must stand together against bigotry and transphobia.”
Justice Minister Kiri Allen, whose partner is the former RadioNZ Midday Report host Mani Dunlop, was also critical of Posie Parker’s right of free speech, saying, “Nope to any person that tries to censor anyone else’s identity – race, sexuality, class, gender – just nope. Let’s do what we do, Aotearoa – stand up, make some noise and support our trans whanau by showing up and drowning out any bigotry that seeks to divide and hurt our whanau.”
And, in spite of the violence and chaos that ensued that morning, the chair of Labour’s Rainbow caucus Shanan Halbert, brushed it aside saying, “I’m so proud of our rainbow community and our allies for coming together in solidarity with our trans whanau. I saw an energetic protest. One that stood up for what New Zealand stands for – inclusion and acceptance. I’m pleased that it was largely a safe environment for all.”
While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins tried to stay out of the controversy by saying Posie Parker’s entry to New Zealand was “a matter for the officials” and claiming “People are allowed to express their views and oppose those they don’t agree with”, he also said he did not agree with “inciting violence”: the “law has a clear line on what you can’t do and I respect that.”
It was rainbow activists who crossed the line and incited violence that day. Fuelled by the inflammatory comments of MPs and false media reports linking Ms Parker with Nazi-sympathisers, the hostile crowd was whipped up into such a frenzy, that she feared for her life.
In an interview with The Platform’s Sean Plunkett, Posie Parker recounted her experience:
“I didn’t know if I was going to make it out alive. I concentrated on one foot in front of the other, and then as the surge came forward, I started falling to the side. If I fell, I wouldn’t get up. A body on the floor is not like a human being – it can be kicked and stomped. It was just so frightening I thought I would get crushed to death. I’ve never felt so unsafe in my life.”
Meanwhile, the Police stood by and did nothing – and while the mainstream media down-played the violence of the protesting mob, you can judge for yourself by viewing Posie Parker’s live-stream of the whole incident HERE or a short edited version with drone footage HERE.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Contributor, veteran political commentator Chris Trotter, outlines what should have happened last Saturday:
“At 11:00am, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (a.k.a “Posie Parker”) a small (just 155 centimetres tall) bottle-blond mother of four from the United Kingdom, would have stood behind the microphone set up in the Albert Park band rotunda and delivered a speech.
“To a small crowd of about 250 people, she would have detailed her objections to transgender women (i.e. persons born biological males and, in some cases, retaining their male reproductive organs) having the right to enter spaces hitherto reserved for biological women and girls; being incarcerated in biological women’s prisons; and permitted to compete against human females in sporting events intended for biological women only.
“Keen-Minshull would have been followed by a line-up of New Zealand speakers (most of them biological women and feminists) concerned about the linguistic erasure of their sex from official discourse (as in the expression “pregnant persons”) and alarmed at the efforts of transgender women and their supporters to silence the public expression of their concerns.”
Chris then explains what really happened: “Keen-Minshull’s rally was over before it had even begun – victim of the Thug’s Veto. Her right to free expression had been illegally and violently curtailed.”
The burning question, of course, is on whose instruction did the Police fail to intervene to ensure public safety – and why?
After all, according to Minister Wood, the “police have advised they will also be in attendance to ensure public safety.”
A second question asks whether this represents our new norm – if identity groups don’t like the message being expressed through New Zealanders’ right to free speech, is it now OK for Cabinet Ministers and their media allies to help whip up a frenzy so they will exercise the ‘thugs veto’ and intimidate speakers into silence, whilst Police turn a blind eye?
The point is that in a democratic society, the police play a crucial role in maintaining public order and enforcing the law. But their actions last Saturday, where they failed to intervene to prevent the violence, appears to indicate they have become selective about law enforcement.
As Dr Oliver Hartwich of the New Zealand Initiative points out, “Civil disobedience does not excuse police inaction. People who engage in civil disobedience should expect to face consequences. That is part of the deal. If the state does not respond, civil disobedience turns into state-sanctioned activism.”
Is that what happened last Saturday – were we witnessing State-sanctioned activism?
That certainly seemed to be the objective of the Green Party Cabinet Minister Marama Davidson, who, attending the protest to support the rainbow community, claimed it is white cis (same gender as birth) men who are responsible for violence: “I am the prevention violence Minister, and I know who causes violence in the world, and its white cis men.”
Pollster David Farrar fact-checked her claims and explains why they are false: “There are two issues here. The first is that she is wrong. In New Zealand here is the data for violent offending for 2022:
– Gender: 79% male, 21% female
– Ethnicity: 51% Maori, 29% European, 11% Pacific, 2% Indian, 1% Asian
“If she is talking about the entire world, then we also have some data. The top five countries for homicide: El Salvador, Jamaica, Lesotho, Honduras, Belize. And the top five for rape are: Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Bermuda, Sweden.
“So it is very clear the Minister is wrong. But that is not the biggest issue. It is her trying to stir up racial hatred.”
Welfare commentator Lindsay Mitchell fact-checked the Minister’s further claims that “overwhelmingly it is men who are the biggest threat to women and children when it comes to violence”, and found they were also wrong: “Green’s co-leader Marama Davidson just keeps digging the hole she is in deeper. First she showed her bitter antipathy towards white CIS men. Then she walked it back to all men…
“University of Otago Professor David Fergusson, an expert on domestic violence, said the public perception that men were the perpetrators of most domestic violence was the result of biased publicity. The proper message is that both gender groups have a capacity for domestic violence and women probably perpetrate more assaults on children then men do.”
Here’s the truth. By revealing her own hate and prejudices through racist and sexist comments, Marama Davidson has demonstrated she is unfit to be a Minister of the Crown. Chris Hipkins should remove her from Office.
Nor is she the first Green Party Minister to display bias against white men. Who can forget the former Minister for Women, Julie-Ann Genter stirring up hate when she stated that “old white men need to ‘move on’ from company boards to help close the gender pay gap.”
The Greens’ anti-white male hatred is vile and dangerous.
But back to Posie Parker.
It is ironic that on the day when she was due to discuss basic needs for biological women including their own bathrooms, changing rooms, and sports events, the President of the World Athletics Council Sebastian Coe announced that female transgender athletes who had gone through male puberty would no longer be permitted to compete in female competitions.
That decision is in sharp contrast to the new guidelines issued by Sports NZ late last year, which not only allow transgender athletes to compete in the gender they identify with, but requires sports clubs to provide inclusive bathroom facilities and gender neutral uniforms.
What happened to Posie Parker was a disgrace. The inflammatory comments by Ministers of the Crown, the false reporting by the media, the Police failing to protect a vulnerable woman in extreme danger, verged on State-sanctioned activism.
It’s not only time our politicians stepped up and defended New Zealanders against radicalised activism, but judging by his dithering when asked to define a “woman”, it’s clearly time our Prime Minister went back to basics and learnt the difference between a man and a woman – as well as the difference between right and wrong.
