June 19, 2019
Free speech advocacy crude political calculation
A Māori academic says the ACT Party's call for a change to the law against abusive or offensive speech is about upholding white privilege.
Rawiri Taonui says the Human Rights Act is actually very weak, and there has only been one successful prosecution under it.
He says while ACT leader David Seymour claims his Freedom to Speak Bill isn't inciting white supremacism, the free speech debate has become about the majority culture defending its ability to attack people it sees as different.
Dr Taonui says ACT seems to be calculating it can benefit by whipping up social division.
"There's an equation around unconscious and conscious prejudice and therefore by making something out of nothing, saying we're limiting free speech – we're not, our laws are fundamentally weak – ACT is hoping to cash in on the concerns of white Pākehā people about things like immigration," he says.
Dr Taonui says while many street level white supremacist white groups have gone underground in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings, the emergence of university-based Alt-Right groups and as well as the impact of reactionary groups like Hobson's Pledge shows there could be votes in stoking Pākehā disquiet.
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