#opinion Cameron Slater Has Learned Nothing and That’s the Problem

There are moments in public discourse when silence becomes complicity. Cameron Slater’s latest comments about Willie Jackson’s wife are one of those moments.

For many New Zealanders, Slater is not a new or misunderstood figure. He is a familiar one. His name is permanently associated with Dirty Politics, a period that exposed the use of personal attacks, racialised language, coordinated smear campaigns, and political bullying masquerading as commentary. Before that-and alongside it-was Whale Oil, the blog that normalised abuse as entertainment and treated cruelty as a political tool.

None of this is ancient history. It is the context in which Slater’s behaviour must be understood.

Against that backdrop, his recent remarks targeting Willie Jackson’s wife-using language he reportedly described as “a manky missus”- are not an aberration. They are entirely consistent with a long-established pattern: attack the person, demean the woman, degrade the whānau, and do so in a way designed to humiliate rather than debate.

Let us be clear. This was not political critique. It was not commentary on policy or performance. It was a personal, gendered insult directed at someone who is not a public office holder, deployed for shock value and attention. That is not free speech in any meaningful civic sense. It is harassment dressed up as opinion.

What makes this especially corrosive is the whakapapa of such behaviour. Māori women have long borne the brunt of public denigration-judged on appearance, demeaned through language, and dragged into political fights they did not seek. When Slater uses slurs and insults, he is not just targeting an individual; he is reinforcing a culture that treats Māori women as fair game.

Some will argue this is just “what Cameron Slater does.” That defence is precisely the problem. Normalising this conduct because it is familiar does not make it acceptable-it makes it entrenched. No – it’s a trade in filth. A filth that should make us all ponder the depths of depravity he will go to.

Others will suggest outrage is performative or that attention only fuels him. But accountability is not outrage. Naming behaviour for what it is-bullying, misogyny, and a deliberate attempt to provoke harm is a necessary act of media responsibility.

Slater’s relevance today rests largely on provocation rather than contribution. He no longer shapes debate; he degrades it. And each time he reverts to personal abuse, he reminds the country why Dirty Politics mattered in the first place-not as a scandal of the past, but as a warning unheeded.

New Zealand deserves better than recycled bile from an era many hoped we had outgrown. Robust debate is healthy. Personal abuse is not. And until figures like Cameron Slater are challenged, not amplified, for this behaviour, the damage will continue to fall on those least deserving of it. For my part, I’ve had crap thrown at me by the cadre of Slater and fellow depth dwellers – but calling a strong Wahine Maori who has spent her career fighting for equity, to call her someone’s “Manky Missus”? Scum bags. Dirty rotten scum bags.

Yes I run Waatea Radio, half owned by MUMA but at least you know who has shares in my employer – how about Slater make public the list of his donors so we can see just who else has hidden behind the filth mask?

Remember this? https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018708059/businessman-defamed-by-cameron-slater-buys-whale-oil-website or this https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018786302/an-end-at-last-to-the-dirty-politics-saga – so much filth you could dig a well and still not hit the bottom.