Other

Despite the country’s horror at the terrorist act in Christchurch and the grotesque ideology behind it, the government does not have the support of New Zealanders for a radical transformation and expansion of so-called ‘hate speech’ laws.

If you think that ‘hate speech’ laws will stop at certain religious beliefs, we’d encourage you to think again. In its 2020 election manifesto, Labour pledged to “extend legal protections for groups that experience hate speech, including for reasons of religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation…”

The Government recently withdrew their proposed hate speech law (Human Rights (Incitement on Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill) after it had gone through its 1st reading and before a Select Committee.

The previous Minister of Justice Kiri Allen has recently asked the Law Commission to look at the laws around these other groups (despite the Ministry of Justice already doing a significant investigation).

Hate speech laws will simply increase the power of the state to decide what we should say or not say. The real effect of hate speech laws is the death of free speech, increased state censorship and the development of a culture of fear and self-censorship for the purpose of political intimidation and control.

Thoughts and ideas which are undesirable to special-interest groups will be able to be silenced simply by framing them as ‘hateful’. Such groups will claim to believe in free speech, subject to being speech they approve of.

Political activists and special interest groups will miss the important distinction between hate-speech, and merely speech they hate, and end up using such laws as tools of political intimidation to punish opponents and shut down debate in the marketplace of ideas. Hate speech laws must be rejected for the sake of a fair, open and democratic society.