When it comes to “inciting hatred” by far the biggest offenders in NZ are the present government and its paid Legacy Media.

Almost a year ago, we launched our campaign against the proposed hate speech laws, which saw tens-of-thousands of you, Free Speech Union supporters, submit against criminalising Kiwis’ speech. 

At the time, we were pushing against a policy proposal from a Government that months before had won a majority in Parliament, and could effectively do what they liked.

Yet, despite commitments that the legislation would be introduced at the beginning of this year, we haven’t seen any progress.  

Now, just this afternoon, when questioned by media in Parliament, neither the Prime Minister nor Kris Faafoi could confirm that hate speech laws would be passed this term. 

This is what the Political Editor of Stuff Henry Cooke said about it: 

Shelved hate speech laws a major win for free speech 

This all comes on the back of Kris Faafoi’s first interview with Newshub Nation since last year. On Saturday, he claimed: 

“I think, as you would have seen from the public reaction to that, I think it showed us that much more care needed to be taken to make sure that, you know, I think, the intent is genuine to make sure that those laws land in the right place. But we also don’t want to inflame the very issue that we are trying to fix here.” 

After receiving overwhelming opposition to the proposals last year, it’s not surprising that the Justice Minister hasn’t made progress with hate speech laws. 

This policy proposal received more submissions than any other proposal before, and over 80% specifically endorsed the Free Speech Union’s submission and opposed the hate speech laws.  

When you can’t articulate what it is you’re trying to address without simply resorting to vague abstractions, we shouldn’t be imprisoning people for 3 years. If ever there was an issue mired in the detail this was it. Frankly, Faafoi will be glad to have this on the backburner.

In Saturday’s interview, he went on to say: 

“I think, as you would have seen from the public reaction to that, I think it showed us that much more care needed to be taken to make sure that, you know, I think, the intent is genuine to make sure that those laws land in the right place. But we also don’t want to inflame the very issue that we are trying to fix here,” he told host Simon Shepherd.

Hence, it is not surprising that the government is struggling to find a way forward. They don’t even know what speech they want to ban. 

Faafoi is slowly finding out what we’ve been saying all along: hate speech laws are simply unworkable in a society that values free expression. 

The battle for free speech in New Zealand is fierce sometimes, but more and more Kiwis are standing up for this basic right, and today, it looks like you’ve won a major victory.