Titled Support Dr Siouxsie After She Supported Us, the crowdfunding pitch paints a picture of a beleaguered scientist, fighting against harassment, death threats, and an uncaring university. And while no one should trivialise threats of violence, it is impossible to ignore the timing and framing here. Wiles is asking ordinary New Zealanders to fund what is essentially her personal legal tab, a staggering $400,000, after she was already paid handsomely by the Ardern regime to broadcast pandemic propaganda. Over $100,000 has already been pledged to this campaign, underscoring the appetite of some for supporting what is ultimately a personal windfall.
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The campaign reads more like a glossy self-help memoir than a legitimate call for help. It details every stressful moment of her four-year legal saga with the University of Auckland, every dollar spent, and every sleepless night endured. Despite being awarded over $225,000 in costs and damages, Wiles claims she is “out of pocket” and needs the public to bail her out. This is where the narrative strains credibility - when you were paid to inform and influence the nation, and when your work was lauded and publicly funded, the idea of turning to crowdfunding smacks of opportunism.
Her self-created campaign has already raised over $100,000
Then there are the “rewards” for pledgers, an invitation to celebrate the microbes in their belly buttons. Cute, perhaps, but utterly trivial when set against the backdrop of a nation facing housing crises, rising cost-of-living pressures, and a healthcare system in disarray. It reads as performative rather than necessary: a gimmick to sweeten the ask and distract from the fact that this is largely a vanity project.
What makes this campaign truly galling is the underlying hypocrisy. While Wiles was spreading pandemic messaging paid for by the state, she routinely amplified fear and misinformation. Ordinary Kiwis were forced to comply, lockdown, and trust her guidance, all while she now turns to those same people to settle her personal finances. It is a shameless self-promotion exercise masquerading as a noble appeal for support.
In short, this is not a scientist in need. It is a marketing exercise in personal branding, dressed up as a crowdfunding campaign. Dr Siouxsie Wiles may have been a household name once, but this latest stunt does little to earn her the trust of the public who funded her prominence in the first place.
Science should inform and enlighten. This campaign does neither. It panders, it preys, and above all, it embarrasses.
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.
8 comments:
We should also remember Siouxie's own breach of the level 4 lockdown rules in Judges Bay, playing in the sea with a friend while not wearing masks. And while complaining about harassment, she was one of the most aggressive critics of the Listener Seven, accusing them of racism and colonialism. Basically she's just another failed pommy academic that gets attention in this country by being woke.
I have no sympathy for the pink haired Wiles. She was handsomely funded by Ardern to push Ardern's "I am the Truth" Covid message. She obviously took great pleasure in being Ardern's pet "scientist". When Ardern fell on her sword, Wiles lost her protector and rightly became the target of anti-Ardern venom. These days, a person who chooses to be in the public eye, they are going to take flack, some of it very vicious. As Ardern's pet scientist, Wiles was NOT acting as a University employee, and the University had NO duty of care to "protect her" from the public backlash over Ardern's Covid policy. In my view, her law suit was frivolous, and she should not have won.
In addition there is her scandalous attack on the Listener 8 over their professional criticism, as scientists, of the absurd/woke notion that Maori traditional knowledge is equal to Science. The woman has no shame.
Don't forget either, she lead the vilification of the 'Listener seven' who logically and politely pointed out that maori knowledge is not equivalent to science and has no part in modern scientific endeavour. She brought her troubles on herself.
I hope she goes bankrupt.
Akl Uni is quickly losing any respect across many fronts, from academia, to mandatory racial indoctrination, and now this nonsense .
Would i recommend Akl to my kids , no, go offshore for a proper balanced degree.
Wiles was a health professional doing her job, and everything she said about COVID was supported by science. She deserves respect for that. As it happens, history proves she was also right so she deserves not only our respect, but our thanks. Science won and New Zealand was the better for it. The science-deniers lost but people like Kahurangi and his camp followers have difficulty accepting that reality. In fact it seems that's because they have a problem with authority in general, and authority exercised by strong women in particular. Psychologists recognise bigotry as a condition that does not respond well to treatment, so unfortunately it will always be amongst us. Luckily, sufferers demonstrate their frailty every time they burst into print, so we can then treat them with the pity they deserve.
Well, Anonymous@8.28, you certainly showed your frailty with a rather sad lack of knowledge about the epidemic and its long term effects on NZ its people. I don't know what 'science' you understand, but it is not that of Wiles and the corrupt Ardern party she worshipped.
Anon 8.28 again. I neglected to mention the science that drove New Zealand's restrictions during the COVID pandemic and, according to research published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, saved around 20,000 New Zealand lives. So which entrails do you study to reach your conclusions Mr Heath?
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