Josh Van Veen: A Modest defence of Chris Liddell

Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits back home. 

Five years ago, the New Zealand Government recognised the multi-millionaire for his ‘services to business and philanthropy’. But some activists are now urging New Zealanders to ‘#ShunLiddell’. In response, politicians are distancing themselves and the media has turned negative.

The mastermind of this campaign is Phil Quin, a New Zealand writer and ex-Labour Party staffer with links to the U.S. Democratic Party. 

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Police Commissioner defends community checkpoints

I’m pleased to see police plan to have a presence at these vigilante checkpoints.  

But really, this should not have been allowed to happen for the last four weeks.

And I wonder if they’ve created a problem for themselves.

Bob Edlin: You will know the border has been reached when virus vigilantes stop you in the name of health and safety

Good questions were raised by “a Far North man”, who did not want to be named because of his fear of retribution.

Talking to the Northland Age late last month, the man said he was

“… scared. Really scared. Not because of some virus. We have ways to deal with this. I am scared because our authorities allow people to take the law into their own hands.

“People with no authority, people with no mandate, who are not elected to represent the people by democratic rules.

“They are allowed to form a private militia, select their own people and block public roads. They are allowed to take away one of the basic human rights from us, the freedom to move.”

Karl du Fresne: Harawira's opportunistic try-on in the Far North

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Hone Harawira and his mates are manning checkpoints on main highways in the Far North to intercept tourists and turn them back, ostensibly to protect their people from Covid-19. He describes it as a border-closing exercise. 

And the police, whose statutory duty is to maintain law and order, appear to have meekly gone along with this brazen usurpation of their authority by a failed MP (he was tossed out by his own Maori voters in 2014) with no legal mandate whatsoever. 

So too, we are told, has the local mayor, former National MP John Carter.