On Friday, the day before the election and after many had already voted, Chris Hipkins went to Friday prayers at Kilbirnie Mosque in Wellington and promised that a Labour government would implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Christchurch mosque attacks.
You likely didn’t hear about it, because it barely made the news.
Those recommendations include new hate speech legislation. Recommendation 40 would extend our current hate speech law to cover religion.
So now Labour has promised a hate speech law for religion.
As reported on the day it happenedIn 2017, when Parliament refused to scrap the old blasphemy law, Hipkins called it “a sad day for freedom of speech”. Now he’s promising a new one by a different route.
Look at how it got there.
In July, RNZ asked the parties where they stood on hate speech law. National said it didn’t support new hate speech law. ACT said the existing laws were enough. The Greens wanted to extend them. Labour said it was still working on its position and would share it “in due course”.
At the end of October, Labour published its manifesto. All 101 pages of it. It found room for fit-for-purpose curtains in rentals, compostable labels on fruit and a ban on octopus farming.
It said nothing on hate speech.
“In due course”, it turns out, meant Friday prayers on the last day of the campaign.
When we launched No Blasphemy Laws, some people asked why we’d fight a law no major party was promising. We’d seen it happen overseas and expected someone would try to bring it back quietly. However, even I didn’t expect it to arrive at a mosque with a day to go.
Politicians should talk to every community. But Labour promised one audience a law that limits what all of us can say, and left it out of the manifesto everyone else was given.
On election night, the coalition had 67 of 131 seats, one more than it needs. Around 400,000 special votes are still to be counted, and specials have historically leaned left. The final result is due on 27 November.
All three coalition parties have told us they won’t bring in new hate speech laws. David Seymour went further, telling us the existing ones “really ought to be gone”. If the coalition holds, this goes nowhere.
But if the specials move a handful of seats, Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori could govern with the Opportunity Party. The Greens have promised to extend hate speech law. Te Pāti Māori backed the faith groups’ call for it. And now Labour has promised it too.
That would leave Opportunity holding the balance of power. Opportunity says we should be “extremely cautious about criminalising speech simply because it is offensive, insulting or hateful”.
We agree. So I’ve written to its leader, Qiulae Wong, asking her to rule out new hate speech law in any coalition deal. Labour didn’t campaign on it, around half the votes were in before it was announced, and no one has a mandate for it.
If you haven’t already, sign the No Blasphemy Laws petition at noblasphemylaw.nz
Whoever forms the next government, we’ll put the petition in front of them.
Sign the petition – No Blasphemy Laws
And forward this to anyone you know who voted early. They deserve to know what was promised after their vote was in.
Best wishes,
Jillaine Heather
Executive Director | Free Speech Union
Prickins to the fore, and leads the charge. A summation of him and the rest of them that keep their seat warm in our house.
Surgeons – the best on which to operate, based on Profession
There were four surgeons debating as to who is the best person on which to operate, based on profession.
The first surgeon said “I like accountants = when you open them up everything is numbered”.
The second surgeon said “I like electricians = when you open them up everything is colour coded”.
The third surgeon said “I like librarians = when you open them up everything is in alphabetical order”.
The fourth surgeon said = “No No, you have all got it wrong. The best are politicians. When you open them up, .you find out that they have no guts, no heart, no brains, no spin, and no balls; and that their head and arse are inter-changeable”.
😂😂😂😂😂😂.
Unfortunately, though true about the politicians = if being a politician can be classified as a profession – most of them are grifters, adding no value, and drawing an almighty salary, and securing an even better pension.
Do not forget, our House has just been (potentially) increased by eleven mps, thanks to the over-hang, costing us tax payers millions