Garrick Tremain: Waitangi

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on the policing of events! 

Suze: Here Is a Question for Erica Stanford

Will you speak up for women’s rights, or continue to censor those who do?

National minister Erica Stanford better sort out her priorities pretty darn quick, because her inability to separate fact from fiction regarding the Posie Parker debacle makes her a target for political manipulation and of real concern when she takes on more responsibility in the new government.

Wendy Geus: Courageous Leader Tackles Social Justice Issue Head On

Whilst our media ban opinions which contradict their ‘correct world view’

Compare and contrast. Our government and media have brazenly condoned the abuse of UK women’s rights activist Posie Parker by transgender protesters. But UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ramped up his support for women’s rights, speaking out against the trans extremism movement where words like ‘pregnant woman’ and ‘mother’ are being censored, replaced by ‘pregnant people’.

Refusing to adhere to the media’s politically correct version of the ‘truth’ around identity politics, Rishi Sunak, in speaking out, is trouncing Keir Starmer, who still struggles (like our PM) to define a woman.

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.

Chris Trotter: An Ugly Demonstration.

WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED on Saturday morning, 25 March 2023, in Auckland’s Albert Park is easily described.

At 11:00am, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (a.k.a “Posie Parker”) a small (just 155 centimetres tall) bottle-blond mother of four from the United Kingdom, would have stood behind the microphone set up in the Albert Park band rotunda and delivered a speech.

Brendan O'Neill: Brendan O’Neil with an overseas perspective on the madness in our country

Brendan O'Neill chats to Shaun Plunket on The Platform about the protest to Posie Parker event in Auckland.

Karl du Fresne: Cartoonists need to realise they too could one day be at risk from the stiflers of free speech

The Wairarapa Times-Age published the cartoon [below] yesterday. I wrote the following letter in response, which the paper published this morning.

Lindsay Perigo: Woke-Fascism Cancels Itself

The sub-set of Woke-Fascism that is Transgender-Fascism may have overplayed its iron fist.

Woke-Fascists, including terrorist groups Only Black Lives Matter and PROFA, are the modern-day version of Mussolini's Blackshirts, Hitler's Brownshirts and Mao's Red Guards. 

In New Zealand they have mostly managed to camouflage their putrid pedigree under the Orwellian guise of Jackboot Jacinda's "kindness." 

Now, the whole world has seen through the facade ... and the whole world is talking about it.

Karl du Fresne: Let me be very clear about this

There’s one immutable rule in politics: never trust a politician who prefaces a statement with the word “frankly”.

Actually, make that two rules. You should also never trust a politician who says, “Let me be very clear”.

Anyone who begins a statement with the word “frankly” is signalling that whatever he or she is about to say (it’s usually a he) is fearless or radical.

Alistair Boyce: A ‘Pot Of Tears’ At Rainbows End

Mainstream New Zealand will be in quiet mourning today.

We have witnessed the violent intolerance of mob rule that was countenanced from its elected government and actively supported by a compliant, fomenting media.

There are no winners here, except the forces of division and intolerance.

The tragedy is transgender rights, celebration of transgender humanity and its mainstream acceptance may always be tainted by the violent, self-congratulatory extremism on display in Auckland’s Albert Park.

Karl du Fresne: The battle for free speech won't be won by hiding in the shadows

The rally planned for Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, in Wellington tomorrow has been cancelled following the shameful assault on free speech in Auckland today. The threat of violence was too great and the New Zealand Police are either too gutless or too politicised to guarantee the speaker's safety.The enemies of free speech have won this round. Whether they will win the war will depend on whether the defenders of free speech have the guts and the resolve to fight back.

That means deciding whether to commit fully to the cause or to continue putting up only a half-hearted resistance.

Karl du Fresne: A Day of Shame

Protesters marching against the Springbok rugby tour in 1981 used to chant, “The whole world’s watching”.

I doubt that the world was watching what happened in Auckland this morning (it probably wasn’t watching in 1981 either), but anyone who witnessed what happened to Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, saw a mortal blow being delivered to New Zealand’s reputation as a civil, liberal democracy where the rule of law applies.

A violent, angry rabble forced Parker to abandon a public meeting as the police stood by and did nothing. She was drowned out when she tried to speak and had tomato soup and food flung at her.

Karl du Fresne: In different circumstances, you could almost admire their chutzpah

Justice Gendall in the High Court has come to the right decision in the case of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker. Whether it was for the right reasons remains to be seen.

Gendall ruled that the government’s decision to allow Parker into New Zealand to speak at rallies in Auckland and Wellington was lawful.

As Jonathan Ayling of the Free Speech Union says, it was the only right result for a country that values tolerance, free speech and the ability to debate.

Bob Jones: Well done Michael Wood

Congratulations to Immigration Minister Michael Wood for refusing to ban British anti-trans activist Posie Parker speaking in New Zealand. The utterly fraudulent argument proffered by diverse sexually confused groups for the ban was that Parker’s presence would cause riots. And the reason they would occur is these same groups say they plan to cause them.

Karl du Fresne: That dull, clunking sound you just heard

The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges memorably described the Falklands War as two bald men fighting over a comb.

The parallels may not be immediately obvious, but the same phrase could be applied to the confected outrage over the speaking tour of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker.

Okay, we’re not talking about war here. Nonetheless, Borges’ description fits a situation where a rational person can only wonder what all the fuss is about.

Karl du Fresne: Hang on - who are the real inciters?

The Greens, displaying their customary enthusiasm for free and robust debate, want a British anti-trans activist barred from speaking in New Zealand. They say her meetings are likely to provoke violence. But who are the real inciters?

RNZ reports that three people were arrested during clashes between supporters and opponents of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, in Melbourne yesterday. That was the cue for Green MPs Ricardo Menendez-March and Elizabeth Kerekere, tireless free speech champions both, to insist that the government deny Keen-Minshull a visa.

Failing that, Kerekere thinks Keen-Minshull should be denied access to speaking venues, as happened to the Canadians Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux in 2018. (Still unsure what hateful ideas the Canadians supposedly intended to disseminate? Me too. We were prevented from hearing them, so couldn’t judge them for ourselves. The protesters made sure of that.)