Whether they realise it or not, the activists have really helped our movement.

When we started our national tour to stop co-governance, the plan was to hold physical meetings in physical buildings all over the country.

At first they were public meetings, because we wanted everyone to come and hear what we had to say. We were very inclusive and embracing of everyone.

We wanted to open the public debate about co-governance.

After all, both the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition had exhorted Kiwis to ‘have a mature discussion about co-governance.”

We soon found out that activists did not want a debate or reasoned discussion.

They just wanted to cancel us. They wanted to cancel our right to free speech. They were closed minded and not inclusive. They found it impossible to be respectful.

The irony of it all, is that we were / are the only people in the country calling the nation back to honouring the original meaning of the Treaty in Maori – Te Tiriti.  

We would often see activists outside our meetings with signs saying “Honour the Treaty!”.

Tragic people.

Then the police advised us to keep the activists out of our meetings. To do this, they said, we had to make them private.

For us, that was a pity, but we had no choice.  The bad behaviour of the activists forced us into it.

In effect, the activists had shot themselves in the foot. They had ruined it for themselves. We didn’t want to bar them from our meetings, but we had to. Why?

We wanted to protect the right of those who had come to hear Julian, and we wanted to protect Julian’s right to speak freely.   These were two crucially important aspects of free speech.

We ploughed on with private meetings, filtering people at the door.

If an activist wanted to get in, we barred them, no matter the colour of their skin.

We would get between 50 and 300 people at these meetings – people who were mature, and respectful, and genuine about wanting to learn about co-governance.

Then the activists started to threaten venue owners (the places where we planned to hold meetings) with death threats, or threats to burn down buildings, or threats to harm owners. So immature.  So childish.

For the safety of hall owners, we turned to on-line meetings.

We are now reaching thousands more people with our message than any meeting in a physical venue.

Over 20,000 people viewed our first on-line meeting. We couldn’t believe it!

That is to say, in one on-line meeting we reached 10 times more people than the entire total of people reached in 40 plus physical meetings. Boom!

In other words, the activists have pushed us into a winning strategy. They have helped us be 100 times more effective.

Now people can watch all Julian has to say from the comfort of their homes – no driving, no hassles, no worries, no having to be bullied and intimated by activists.

And it’s all completely free!

What’s more, we are reaching people in very remote places, like the hill country, who could never get to a physical meeting.

Conclusion? The activists, far from cancelling us, have actually massively helped us.

Bad behaviour always back fires.

Immature behaviour results in an own goal.

When we are disrespecting of others, we always lose in the end.

As the song goes, “when will they ever learn”.