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Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch is a journalist, videographer and content producer, broadcasting from his independent news and production company in Christchurch, New Zealand.
New Zealand police are investigating a highly inflammatory video recorded by Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, the wife of Maori Party Co-Leader Rawiri Waititi.
In a social media video laced with expletives, Tamihere-Waititi, daughter of Maori Party president John Tamihere, claimed “this government is launching an all-out attack on us as a people, on our very identity as tangata whenua. We are under siege by the government. They’re doing everything and they’ve got the f***** power to get rid of us.”
“And while you’re thinking about that, you might as well also start thinking about how we’re going to take our country back, too. We’re continuing to subscribe to a model that was designed to assimilate to continue to colonise and to keep us as second class citizens in our own country. By design we are not unified. Right? Just imagine just take one f***** minute of your day to imagine if we were all on the same page.
“Can you imagine the might and the power that we would have? We could overthrow any government. We could do whatever the f*** we wanted.”
Tamihere-Waititi continues her expletive ridden rant saying “what does that do when we’re fighting our own little teeny tiny wars, when we can just come together and launch our own full-on attack, our own agenda without permission, without the need to ask for anything from anyone. But that we assert, assert our rights under the Treaty of Waitangi, to do what we need to do for our people.”
Responses to the video include a woman who said it was “time to overthrow the Government.”
Tamihere-Waititi trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Auckland, but de-registered herself.
New Zealand Security Intelligence Service responds
A New Zealand Security Intelligence Service spokesman told chrislynchmedia.com while the NZSIS does not discuss what may or may not be specific areas of operational focus, we are well aware that extremist rhetoric is being spread in our communities every day, particularly online.
“Generally speaking, we work closely with New Zealand Police in this area. Our role is to detect, investigate and assess activities of individuals and groups which may pose a threat to national security.
“We are specifically looking for individuals adhering to violent extremist ideologies who have both the capability and intent to carry out a real-world attack, or support those that do.
“It is important to note however that the vast majority of those espousing violent rhetoric online are unlikely to conduct violence in the real world. The New Zealand intelligence agencies have a number of ways to identify and investigate an individual’s intent and capability, and in recent years we have increased our online capabilities, as well as our co-operation with domestic and international partners around violent extremist threats.
“The public also play an important part in helping us. Around 20 per cent of our investigative leads come from information from the public, and we are always interested to hear about behaviour of concern.”
A police spokesperson provided a two-line response, which took a day to be approved.
“Police are aware of the video and are assessing it as to any offences committed. Staff will continue to monitor the reaction to the video and take action as appropriate.”
Political commentator Chris Trotter told Sean Plunket on the Platform “I didn’t read it as political theatre. I read it as the sort of politics you get yourself into when you have to keep upping the ante, partly to keep the cameras trained upon you and the microphones held under your nose, but partly also because once you embark on a certain path and radical politics, it’s extremely difficult to get off without looking like you surrendered, without looking like you’ve become a sellout.”
Trotter described the rant as a “failure of intelligence”.
