Simon Anderson: Tamaki Trial Court Report - Day Three

State Overreach: On Trial For Publicly Defying Jacinda Ardern

I sat in the gallery for a couple of hours yesterday morning, the highlight of which was the cross examination of a police detective by the Tamaki’s barrister, Ron Mansfield KC.

It was absolutely fascinating for many reasons which I’ll detail below. I am not a lawyer though, so my impressions are those of a layman and may be far from the mark. I’m also extrapolating broader defence strategy from the microcosm of one cross-examination so make of my opinion what you will.

Simon Anderson: New Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle

Celebrating Leftist Political Violence. "The only thing missing from the rotunda today was tomato juice"

In April of 2023 New Zealand society was reeling from the backlash against leftwing political violence.

A storm of international criticism had been unleashed upon the country for the attack upon a women’s rights rally hosted by the British activist Posie Parker a month earlier. Domestically, Kiwis were asking difficult questions about police collusion with the violent demonstrator and questioning the bias of the vestigial media which, despite video evidence proving the contrary, endeavoured to portray the violence positively.

Simon Anderson: They No Longer Pretend to Care What We Think

I copped a fair amount of flak for publishing footage of two politicians sitting together outside a cafe. The essence of much of the criticism was that politicians are entitled to private lives – which of course they are – and that filming them in public was an unwarranted intrusion. Here I’ll explain why I think the circumstances are newsworthy.