Next Sunday when we celebrate ANZAC Day and pay tribute to the New Zealanders who fought and died in two horrendous World Wars, we must all remind ourselves of the two main reasons for their supreme sacrifices: Our freedom and our sovereignty as a nation. For in this year of supposed enlightenment, 2021, our freedom and our sovereignty are under threat of erosion, if not complete destruction, as never before.
There is no more basic freedom than freedom of speech, the meaning of which is described by Wikipedia thus:
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The term freedom of expression is usually used synonymously but, in a legal sense, includes any activity of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.
The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the UDHR states that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference” and “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice”. The version of Article 19 in the ICCPR later amends this by stating that the exercise of these rights carries “special duties and responsibilities” and may “therefore be subject to certain restrictions” when necessary “[f]or respect of the rights or reputation of others” or “[f]or the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals”.
Why freedom of speech is important has been brilliantly explained in this article by Chris Trotter:
Dr Muriel Newman, of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research, has written also in the Otago Daily Times warning of the consequences of the current Ardern Labour Government’s intention to make what is loosely described as “hate” speech a crime under the Crimes Act:
Any tinkering by this Labour cabal with our hard-won rights to free speech must be resisted immediately in the strongest terms and should motivate a majority of Kiwis to call on dissolution of this present government, and the calling of a new General Election, unless the proposed legislation is dropped for good.
Further, the proposed legislation is an attempt to fix a problem that does not exist. Anyone who incites others to commit a crime can be dealt with under existing legislation. Therefore it lowers the bar to a disturbing level where individuals are likely to be unjustly harassed by police and authorities. It is the proverbial answer to a question no one is asking.
The Christchurch terrorist would not have been stopped by this new law – nor would he have been deterred by it. This obsession with the notion that any and all problems, real and imagined, can be “fixed” by the intervention of the state and its unbridled power is a major problem that will lead to more real trouble than anything these hate laws are purporting to fix.
I hope my own party, National, will seize on this as an issue with which to hammer the Ardern government again and again, while National itself commits itself to retaining and, if necessary, strengthening that very principle of freedom on which the party was founded over 80 years ago.
Equally under imminent threat of erosion by an Ardern-led government is our New Zealand sovereignty. I have written in an earlier column about what Ms Ardern told a private dinner in New York hosted by US-based Microsoft founder, billionaire Bill Gates:
She told the audience that under her administration New Zealand had taken a lead and embedded the United Nations Agenda 2030 into our legal and regulatory framework:
“…my Government is doing something not many other countries have tried. We have incorporated the principles of the 2030 Agenda into our domestic policy-making in a way that we hope will drive system-level actions… I believe that the change in approach that we have adopted in New Zealand is needed at a global scale…”
Remember that our Prime Minister is a former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, so her advocacy for globalisation under United Nations supervision should come as no surprise.
What is a surprise, and should be a matter of deep concern for every thinking New Zealander, is that Prime Minister Ardern and her Labour accomplices have no mandate for this assault on our sovereignty. True, they made mention of the possibility of “hate” speech law in the run-up to last year’s election but regarding UN Agenda 2030, previous references were centred on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
It is a matter of debate whether SDGs could or would subjugate our sovereignty to the dictates of unelected UN apparatchiks, many of whom represent either dictatorships or third world countries who don’t share our Kiwi way of life and thinking. But SDGs are just a side issue in the complex pattern of UN Agenda 2030. Any commitment of our country to issues of wider involvement in that vital agenda should be put to our people in a general election, not left to a coterie of socialists who find themselves still in office as a consequence of a pandemic.
So I call on the National Party, as the official Opposition in Parliament, to demand, and keep on demanding until they get an answer, that the Prime Minister reveal the full details of her unannounced agenda to limit our freedom and curtail our sovereignty.
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