Our Kaiwaka  event has had to be moved 3 times. The reason? Activists harassed and bullied the hall managers of the two venues in Kaiwaka, and they caved in.  The media have aided the activists by misreporting the events, giving an impression that they were dangerous and highly controversial, and that by holding them,  the safety of participants would be put at risk, as would the integrity of the building where they are held. Welcome to tribal rule.

The third turn down was unexpected – a school principal.

We approached Aaron Kemp at Managawhi beach school and this was his reply.

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Aaron (and by this I mean Aaron and his board) is not telling the truth about being a supporter of free speech.  That is to say, his answer is spin.  How do we know?

First,  free speech welcomes vigorous debate.  Aaron didn’t want that.  He wanted to protect the public in Mangawhai from being exposed to the truth about co-governance, or even a particular view of co-goverance, which would have sparked debate.  

In other words, Aaron and his board made a decision to not allow vigorous open debate in his school about this topic.  The public are not allowed to decide for themselves.  Aaron has decided for them. 

Second, one of the great aims of education is to stimulate critical thinking and to teach learners to do it.   The seminar on co-governance which we present would have achieved that.  The seminar is to simple, even the senior kids would have ‘got’ it. But no, Aaron doesn’t want critical thinking going on.

Third, we disagree that the hall is not a public space.  The parents whose children attend his school come from the public space.  The school was build using taxes paid by the public.  The salaries of the teachers are paid by the public.  The cost of the upkeep of the school is paid by the public.  So saying the school is not a public space is a bit rich.  Like I said, it’s spin, a very lame excuse.

Finally, and this is the kicker, Aaron told me in our conversation that he was “developing relationship with Iwi and he did not want to offend them.”   This is really an admission that the feelings of Iwi are more important that freedom of speech, more important than critical thinking, more important than vigorous debate, more important than letting adults in the community decide for themselves whether they want to learn the truth about co-goverance or not, more than open and honest debate in an atmosphere of free speech. 

Free speech makes the possibility of taking offence real, because it’s impossible to have free speech without the possibility of offence.    So my question is this – so what if Iwi are offended?  So what if anyone is offended? So what if I am offended?  We need to get over our offences for the sake of persevering freedom of speech.  If we don’t like what is being said, we can simply walk away. 

The cherry on the cake? Aaron did a Pontius pilate, washing his hands of the responsibility for making a decision.  Instead of showing decisive leadership, and defending free speech,  he put it to the vote with his board, thereby making them carry the can.  Nice one Aaron.  

This is what New Zealand has come to.   Woke principals, under the heavy influence of the government narrative and agenda, are now protecting Iwi,  having to molly coddle them, so that they will not be exposed to offence.  Why are we all having to bow down like this?  Why the need to submit? And cower down?  What’s going on? Answer? 

Schools have been targeted by the government.  How so? They have had to sign up to promote the same stuff that those who signed up to the $55 Public Interest Journalism Fund had to sign up t0.

Which was?  

The following are the actual words from the contract media outlets were required to sign if they wanted ‘free’ money from this fund. 

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From page 3

The Public Interest Journalism Fund must achieve all ofthese things:

The contract further states:

• Māori have never ceded sovereignty to Britain or any other State. 
• This means our society has a foundation of institutional racism, 
• We live in a society that perpetuates racism and inequities. 
• In response, many Māori organisations and networks are decolonising.

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Welcome to New Zealand, the country fast headed towards becoming the Zimbabwe of the South Pacific.

My final question to Aaron would be this “Have you ever had outside groups rent your hall?”  If the answer is “Yes” then you are not standing for free speech.  You are censoring free speech, deciding who will speak and on what topics.  If so, that’s plain wrong, and illustrates the presence of dishonesty.