NZCPR Newsletter: The Politics of Division

Most New Zealanders will have watched last week’s Albert Park demonstration against British woman’s rights campaigner ‘Posie Parker’ with alarm and disgust, as a surging mob of howling rainbow rights activists threatened to crush her, while the Police stood by and did nothing.

The division, violence and anger that was on display that day, will be an enduring legacy of the Ardern-Hipkins Labour Government.

Instead of advocating the democratic ideal of equality and unity, Labour has championed diversity and division.

Graham Adams: Posie Parker blows apart Hipkins’ anti-woke pose

The UK activist has changed the election-year dynamic.

Chris Hipkins’ initial success as Labour’s fresh Messiah after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation in January has largely rested on the promise that his party’s focus henceforth would be on “bread-and-butter” issues such as the cost of living.

This recasting of a prominent member of Ardern’s close-knit kitchen Cabinet as a working-class hero (“I’m just Chippy from the Hutt”) was snappily summarised by the mainstream media as a shift from “woke” to “bloke”. But why journalists would promote that view is hard to understand given that even a cursory review of Hipkins’ role as Education minister makes it clear that Hipkins is an ideologue, of the intensely woke variety.

Mike Hosking: Posie Parker protestor - why do we cover the attention seekers?

I reached peak despair this week with the profile of the person who tossed the soup, or paint, or juice or whatever it was at Posie Parker.

The Posie Parker debate was bad enough. We have big stuff going on right now that deserves a great deal more attention.

But it’s a human trait to become preoccupied with high drama so we had the high-drama scrap about Posie and who ended up making a bigger dick of themselves.

But we weren't satisfied with that. We then decided to make a celebrity of the offender, the juice thrower.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: The actions of the protesters ceded the moral high ground to Posie Parker

Tell you what surprises me today; it's the apparent lack of self-awareness from key members of that protest against Posie Parker at the weekend. 

Max Tweedie from Pride Auckland – who wasn’t one of the organisers I believe, but did support the protest – had it put to him in an interview this morning that it was an ugly scene.

And he said, no it wasn’t ugly- there was a lot of joy, a lot of celebration, support for trans communities, and this is what happens when you spread hate and division.

Bob Jones: Trans-Rights mobs not just sexually confused

The shouting turnouts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were obsessed in their cries and placards with “rights”. The indisputable fact is that trans folk have exactly the same legal rights as everyone else. Their cry is for extra ones, such as for blokes who think they’re women, to use women’s toilets and compete with them in sport, despite their physical advantages. They can flounce and bellow all they wish but those things are never going to happen, not the least because women understandably won’t tolerate it.