OPINION
Olivia Pierson
After the great success of the mighty 2022 Convoy and Wellington Protest, which saw tens of thousands of us descend on parliament grounds to voice our disgust at the Covid vaccine mandates and lockdowns, NZ’s ‘freedom vote’ has become a precious commodity to be courted.
The reason for this lies in the fact that every single Member of Parliament from every party refused to take our peaceful protest seriously and smugly denied us any redress of grievances under orders from Jacinda Ardern. The government-funded media then set about savaging us in print every hour of every day, the police soon followed suit and smashed the protest by violently overthrowing it.
We knew then that they were done with democracy. So we got organised.
Since that time, new parties have sprung up around us, Democracy NZ with Matt King as leader, formed his party quickly after quitting the National Party to attend the Convoy as a protester. He’s gone on to have a fairly successful road tour around New Zealand and has managed to attract some exceptional candidates: Dr. Matt Shelton, Kirsten Murfitt and Martin Langford to name a few.
Recently Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church joined forces with Sue Grey of the Outdoors & Freedoms Party and also the New Nation Party. Tamaki is leader and Grey is co-leader; their umbrella party is going onto the ballot as Freedoms NZ Party.
Tamaki has been exceptional at organising huge protests with a (noisy) razzle-dazzle and consistency that’s been committed. He’s paid for it too with a small stint in prison and home detention. The man is thoughtful and conscientious, but I always feel his strength lies more in community organising and not in party politics. The clash between his organisation, the Freedom and Rights Coalition, and Kelvyn Alp of Counterspin Media, was obvious at the Wellington protest. But now some questions have been asked about Tamaki’s close relationship with George Ngatai, a Destiny Church member and wealthy businessman who owns and operates private medical clinics, confusingly called Whanau Ora, that must profit from Covid vaccinations since they administer them. There was a Covid testing station in the carpark of Destiny Church, Manukau, that may also have been administering Covid vaccines.
I think freedom voters want some clarification on: did Tamaki profit from Pfizer money indirectly? Tamaki denies this and says, “the thought sickens me.” Or is this just malicious slander invented by Samantha Edwards and endorsed by Kelvyn Alp?
Tamaki’s formal response to the Counterspin hit piece is here.
I’d quite like to hear one from Sue Grey due to the fact that I respect her so much. This isn’t the usual hit-job done by the blanks over in mainstream media, whom we totally revile. Counterspin’s cultural style of shrieking noise polluted media presentations are far from appealing. If truth is truth, let it speak for itself without the high-drama bashy accompaniment. (Take a lesson from quality filmmaker, Samantha Blanchard, in “Silenced.” Less is more.)
So, as it stands, these are the minor parties vying for the freedom vote:
Democracy NZ
New Conservative Party
Freedoms NZ
Heartland NZ Party (only looking for the candidate vote, not the party vote)
One Party
TOP Party
NZ First Party
ACT NZ are also wanting a piece of the pie, evidenced by David Seymour’s predictable back-pedalling on his open authoritarianism at the protest. He now claims he went all out to build a bridge between Parliament, since he was in it, and the protesters, whom he constantly derided and mocked. He lost a bunch of ACT voters through his high-handed nastiness punctuated by his oft-repeated, cry-baby boohoos that the protesters had “NOOSES!”
I was there for a week and didn’t see one.
Incredibly, at the end of last week, Leighton Baker, formerly the leader of the New Conservative Party, decided to launch his own new party that carries his name, the Leighton Baker Party (even the populist, alpha-on-steroids Teddy Roosevelt didn’t opt for that game second time round). The timing’s a bit iffy, considering we go to the ballot box in 4 months, but I’m sure he knows that. I would’ve loved to have seen him be the Matt King of the South under the Democracy NZ brand. I would’ve thought that would be close to a natural fit, give or take a bit of Christianity.
As voters and knowing the issues are massive, we’re looking for an “approximation of values” not any kind of guru in political leadership. That’s why people keep circling back to NZ First because Winston Peters is something old-school, audaciously Kiwi every which way and a rascal. They can see him upsetting the Uni-party applecart once more by just being himself. But will he fight for us where it counts against the globalists? Or does he crave power a little too much that he could be bought?
Nobody ever offers us any clear reasons as to why they cannot work with the other parties. It all goes Mum. Maybe that’s a sense of discretion where fair-minded folks don’t want to appear unduly negative toward people they know held similar views at the extraordinary protest – when it bloody counted. There seems to be a “less said, the better” strategy, but I know many in the freedom movement are disheartened and more than a little confused about who to vote for and why.
Thus, a voting block of around 250k potential votes is being wooed – and fractured.
Let me make this observation. At a time when discerning unity seems crucial to really causing a political upset in our Uni-party parliament, not having the words as to why one won’t work with other established parties is not having the fight at all – and this is war. Stuff matters. The skirmishes among the minor freedom parties must be had to get to the battle with the global fascists, or just go home. This war is going to take massive heart, cast iron guts and very smart brains. I admire everyone who seriously steps into the ring from our side at this critical juncture, but please, “to everyone who is among you, do not think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.”
Many are watching, waiting to make a decision. I’ve made mine already – Democracy NZ. What we want is competent persuasion and integrity that’s got a hope in hell of getting a strong, intelligent voice in parliament and sadly that’s looking less and less likely.
