Today, the Free Speech Union will sue both Hutt City Council and its Chief Executive, Jo Miller (in her personal capacity), after they censored an insert at Council libraries and information centres, breaching Hutt City residents’ freedom of expression, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union.
“Last year, the Hutt City Council removed a paid advertisement inserted in newspapers from all council sites. We believe this is an unlawful act that flies in the face of ratepayers’ speech rights.
“The insert was from ‘Treaty of Waitangi – An Explanation’ by Sir Āpirana Ngata and was published in 31 NZME and Stuff newspapers by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research (NZCPR).
“We’ve attempted to communicate with Miller and the Council to find a resolution, but it’s fallen on deaf ears. So now we are taking action.
“Hutt City’s reasons for banning it from its premises were that it “spread a very particular political viewpoint” and was “viewed as spreading misinformation”.
“We simply cannot have local councils and bureaucrats dictating what information ratepayers do and don’t consume. It’s as simple as that.
“Hutt City ratepayers deserve to think for themselves, and the Council has a responsibility to uphold free speech under the Bill of Rights Act. We’re ensuring that the Council and Chief Executive are held accountable.
Amazing that the Council tried to suppress a brochure quoting the arguably most esteemed Maori New Zealander – who is on our $50 note.
Some councils are notoriously reluctant to say they got it wrong, and won’t do it again. The only way they can be incentivised to behave properly is if there is a cost to their arrogance – and having them lose in court is costly to their reputation.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
13 comments:
A growing number of councils are doing this - must be a strategy from LGNZ and local Iwi.
To submit to a Select Committee for group, the right to speak for that group mut be proved. Hence prior consultation with each ratepayer would be necessary -especially on an issue such as this which is outside the remit of local government.
Minister Brown must intervene on this issue. Local councilors are punch drunk on their limited authority. Or are they cultural marxists?
PS The really dangerous issue here is that opposition to the ACT Bill by local councils is an erroneous impression ( based on the assumption of consultation with ratepayers) . This is a falsehood . It is not a proven reality based on actual consultation which records ratepayers' views.
NZ's democracy will ultimately be destroyed by this fraudulent behaviour.
I recall the Hutt library canceling subscriptions to newspapers and periodicals if they don't agree with the Council's woke agenda. One example is the Spectator from Melbourne which was canceled in 2022 because it printed an article critical of Jacinda. The offending article quoted her saying, "If you don't hear it from us, it's not the truth." That totalitarian position seems to be the view of the Hutt City Council.
As a Hutt City ratepayer I also belong to FSU. i guess the mayor will charge the rates for the Council's costs, but I'll be pretty annoyed if Jo Miller's costs come from the same source - bet they will.
Perhaps the WCC incompetence is spilling over into the Hutt. Shame on Miller and the rest of them for pushing their racist far left agenda.
Kudos to Jonathan Ayling and his team for standing up to these far left tyrants that are plentiful in this poor country.
Kudos to David Farrar as usual for highlighting these acts of blatant bullying by people pushing an agenda who shouldn't and can't get away with it.
This case will need to be taken offshore to an independent judiciary, as the current cohort of judges have proven themselves to be so prejudiced that the Hutt Council will win no matter the arguments against it.
And so Mr Farar joins one of the most self important and arrogant zealots we are unfortunately enough to be stuck with at the moment. Neither he nor Mr Ayling seem to get it thar councils have people called councilors who live in amongst and are accountable to people called ratepayers. And the people called ratepayers are mostly adults and therefore able to think for themselves about local issues.
Mr Ayling is a nanny at heart - he doesn't get that and is making a career of flying in with stern letters and threats of legal action if communities don't operate in the way he thinks they should.
Such is is arrogance that he cares not at all that the intervention of his one man flying squad costs councils $ in legal fees. That could otherwise buy playground swings or new books for a library. Mr Ayling thinks his interfering is more important than making improvements for ratepayers.
To quote - "Amazing that the Council tried to suppress a brochure quoting the arguably most esteemed Maori New Zealander – who is on our $50 note" end quote/ from posted article.
My question Dear New Zealander's, do the operators of said Council Library, know what a New Zealand $50 dollar note looks like?
I do and when I tried, at a Bank to downsize said denomination to smaller currency, got the " 3rd degree " - which surprised me as I do not originate from Mexico.
Yeah right!
To anon at 3.02. I'm sure you must be running late for some far left DEI meeting.
You have unbeknownst to yourself highlighted exactly the point that David Farrar is making, that the rate payers want honesty, transparency and no one type of political agenda pushed - but HCC are pushing a far left agenda and are not allowing anyone else to question it!!
The council are doing exactly what you state in your second paragraph, telling ratepayers ' this is what we want you to know', this is very far left behavior and thinking.
Forget about the $, these people need to be held to account. They need to stick to running a city and stop meddling in political agendas that probably most disagree with.
We agree on one thing, arrogance!! The arrogance of these people at the HCC is second to none.
Go David, don't let these nutters stop you. Keep highlighting their poor behavior, I love it that they crawl out from where ever and have to have a crack at you. You must really be getting to them. :)
Yes, thanks to Messrs Ayling and Farrar for highlighting this issue of Local Councils and Councils for pushing their own personal views and saying they are doing it on behalf of ratepayers. If they were confident in their arguments they wouldn't try to suppress other views.
Our Palmerston North and Horizons regional council are also guilty of the same thing. It is not their place to comment on National politics as a group. Obviously, as individuals they may comment as much as they want, but don't use Council time , money and resources to do so
Given that the Mayor, Councillors, & CEO have had almost a year to correct their error and have refused to do so, this highlights their complete inability to differentiate 'right' from 'wrong'. By lacking that basic level of discernment and decency and incurring their ratepayers in unnecessary expense, they have clearly shown to be unfit to hold the roles and offices that they do. But then that same Council funded a Mayoral international junket; approved a rates hike of nearly 20%; and, without a public mandate, voted against the Treaty Principles Bill. The same Council, also without public mandates, voted in a Maori Ward, and advocated for a change of name of Petone. It therefore is likely no surprise that the Mayor is also the VP of LGNZ. Their actions have all well-signalled that they are past their "Use By" dates - assuming they were ever fit for office?
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