Daily Telegraph NZ: Ditching Paul Hunt a good start, but not enough to fix the HRC – Act

“The Justice Minister’s decision not to reappoint Paul Hunt is a good start, but doesn’t go far enough to acknowledge the Human Rights Commission’s rot,” says Act MP Todd Stephenson.

Cam Slater: Oh, So Now Human Rights Are Important?

You’d never have known that we had a Human Rights Commissioner during the excesses of the Ardern regime. She illegally locked us up and down, illegally banned Kiwi citizens from entering their own country and illegally sacked them from jobs because of her vaccine mandates which were demonstrably against the Bill of Rights. Paul Hunt, the keffiyeh-wearing apologist for violent regimes, was utterly silent even as Police assaulted and stomped on peaceful protestors in Wellington.

Now because a few people living in a boarding house had the misfortune of having had it burn down on them, he is all of a sudden incredibly concerned about the human rights of those few people.

Karl du Fresne: New Zealand's most useless public servant

The man masquerading as the guardian of New Zealanders’ human rights has weighed in, from his Olympian heights, on the Posie Parker affair.

As usual, Paul Hunt’s opinion is worthless and leaves us wondering once again what we did to deserve this third-rate British import and how much longer we should be expected to put up with him.

The chief human rights commissioner writes, as if we all eagerly awaited his insights, that he wants to provide a human rights perspective on the issues raised by Parker’s visit. He adds, in Uriah Heep fashion, that he does this “from where I sit with my multiple privileges and advantages”.

Oh, please. Breast-beating liberal white guilt has rarely been more cringingly displayed. We can only hope his $365,000 salary eases the pain.

Thomas Cranmer: When Ideology Turns Violent.....

.....The Political and Media Backing Behind the Posie Parker Mob

Similar to other countries, the transgender movement in New Zealand is not a grassroots organisation but instead is an increasingly radicalised campaign led by progressive elites.

As images of the Auckland’s violent treatment of Kellie-Jay Keen continue to circulate on major international news channels and social media platforms, more details are emerging of the links between New Zealand’s political and media elite and the aggressive mob which congregated in Albert Park on Saturday morning.

Graham Adams: It’s open season on white men

Tusiata Avia’s provocative poem opens the door wide to more robust opinions being expressed in public — but only if you’re brown.

Poet Tusiata Avia — with the help of Stuff’s editors — and Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi have exposed the double standards of what is considered to be acceptable speech in New Zealand.

After Waititi recently posted an image of Captain James Cook being killed in Hawaii in 1779, Avia extended the celebration of his murder to killing his descendants.

Waititi wrote on his Facebook page on Valentine’s Day:

Karl du Fresne: ACT should make abolition of the Human Rights Commission a bottom line

The Human Rights Commission says it’s “very disappointing” that the government isn’t going ahead with law changes that would curb New Zealanders’ right to free speech.

Let me repeat that, just in case you didn’t get the irony. An agency ostensibly set up to protect our rights is upset that the government isn’t introducing new laws that would restrict them. What better evidence could there be of the commission’s highly selective interpretation – you might say perversion – of its own name?

Guy Hatchard: Letter to Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt

To: Dr Paul Hunt
Chief Human Rights Commissioner

23 February 2022

Dear Commissioner

Thank you for providing the opportunity to present to yourself and staff yesterday afternoon. I did so as an individual scientist but on the invitation of Voices For Freedom. I remain independent of groups, but maintain communication with many groups and colleagues on scientific issues. I am not a protestor, nor do I have any history prior to the pandemic of publicly opposing vaccination. I am formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a global food safety testing and certification company (now known as FoodChain ID). I am a long standing advocate of the benefits and safety of those natural approaches to diet and medicine which have been adequately scientifically verified. I have my own website, HatchardReport.com. At the conclusion of the meeting you said that the HRC would make a public statement and left the participants free to make public statements themselves. Thank you.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Koha scandal shows how ineffectual the Chief Human Rights Commissioner is

 

On the revelation the chief Human Rights Commissioner gave a $200 koha to the Mighty Mongrel Mob Kingdom when he went to their hui  - as I’ve said before, I don’t have a problem with him going to the hui.  I think conversation’s good. And $200 is not a lot of money in the scheme of things.

But it’s the principle.  What is he doing giving any taxpayer money to the Mongrel Mob?  Did that not set off any alarm bells for him, giving money to an organisation, with some members of which profit off infringing on other people’s human rights?  

He’s refusing to give interviews but in statement appears completely unapologetic, essentially saying he did nothing wrong.  

“I was doing my job” he said. “The provision of koha is entirely culturally appropriate. To not offer koha at that pōwhiri would have been extremely disrespectful. “  

Karl du Fresne: New Zealand, meet Paul Hunt - the man who will shape our human rights policy

We’ve finally been properly introduced to the man who will shape our human rights policy for the next few years, and who will almost certainly seek to tighten the boundaries around what New Zealanders can legally say.

British academic Paul Hunt was appointed as Chief Human Rights Commissioner last October but to my knowledge, hadn’t been wheeled out for public inspection until Kim Hill interviewed him on RNZ National last Saturday.

It wasn’t a reassuring interview. Hunt’s responses to Hill’s questions served only to confirm suspicions that he will push for tougher hate speech laws that could erode the right to freedom of expression.

Karl du Fresne: Is this the man we want to shape our human rights policies?

I did something a couple of weeks ago that I’ve never done before. I made a request under the Official Information Act.

I suppose it might be seen as shameful, as a journalist, to admit that I’ve never previously had recourse to the OIA, but there you are. I never felt I needed to.

My request was to Justice Minister Andrew Little and asked for information about the appointment of the Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt.