Matua Kahurangi: Greens cry foul over parody billboards

The Green Party, architects of the Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill, have found themselves in the unusual and frankly ironic position of complaining about being parodied.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has partly upheld eight complaints about six parody billboards lampooning Green MPs Tamatha Paul and Chlöe Swarbrick. The billboards, funded by the Sensible Sentencing Trust, featured slogans such as “Defund the Police” and the more pointed “Woop Woop! Defund da Police”, the latter a cheeky nod to Paul’s on-stage DJ performance earlier this year where she played Sound of da Police by rapper KRS-One.

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In a move that raised more eyebrows than the billboards themselves, the Green Party’s sympathisers lodged formal complaints claiming the ads were misleading and offensive.

It is a curious stance from the same party that authored and championed the legislation designed specifically to protect political satire. Apparently, satire is only welcome when it is aimed at others.

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The ASA did not agree with the Greens’ more dramatic objections. It found that while the identity of the advertiser, the Sensible Sentencing Trust, could have been made clearer, the ads did not breach rules around decency or cause harm. In other words, the message was fair game, just a bit small in the footer.

But that did not stop some complainants from grasping at straws. One suggested the phrase “Defund da Police” was racially charged and evoked negative stereotypes. The ASA rejected that claim unanimously, noting the language was a reference to Paul’s DJ persona, not her ethnicity, and that the billboards were clearly political in nature.

Critics have been quick to point out the staggering hypocrisy. The Green Party wrote satire into law only to run to the referees the moment the joke was turned on them. Their reaction to being mocked, not personally but for their very public policy positions, has revealed a party more interested in dishing it out than taking it.

The Sensible Sentencing Trust was unapologetic, stating the campaign aimed to highlight what and who the Green Party stand for because it certainly is not victims.

Indeed, if the party feels misrepresented by a billboard quoting their own MP’s statements and public DJ sets, perhaps the issue is not with the satire but with the source material.

The ASA’s ruling means the billboards, as presented, cannot be reused. But the broader point remains: the Greens, self-declared defenders of satire, have stumbled over their own standards. It is a classic case of free speech for me but not for thee.

In politics, if you cannot laugh at yourself, especially after legislating the right for others to do just that, perhaps it is time to rethink whether you are in the right profession.

Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.