Complaints made to Human Rights Commission and attorney-general over anti co-governance talks

Wednesday, 22 March 2023

Attorney-General David Parker has been sent a petition to take action against a Stop Co-Governance public speaking tour.

The bar to prosecute people for inciting racial disharmony under current legislation is high, but one complainant against the Stop Co-Governance talks says there are many prepared to fight it in court.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has received three complaints about the tour organised by evangelical Christian Julian Batchelor, and Māori ward councillor from Kaipara District Council Pera Paniora says her complaints to the HRC and Attorney-General David Parker on Wednesday are backed by 3656 petition signatures.

Her petition says Batchelor is inciting (alleged) racial disharmony with his “misinformation, lies and insults towards Māori”. He opposes co-governance, criticises Māori MPs, Treaty of Waitangi rights for Māori and iwi organisations, and says “protesters are simply pawns in the elite Māori plan to take over New Zealand”.

An HRC spokesperson said it did not have the ability to shut down public events or take censorship action, but it supported co-governance.

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Kaipara District Council Te Moananui Māori Ward councillor Pera Paniora.

Parker confirmed a prosecution alleging the offence of racial disharmony could only be initiated with the attorney-general’s consent due to it encroaching on rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights Act. Prosecutions and issues of public order were a matter for the police, he said.

“It’s an election year, there are going to be a lot of people saying things people don’t like. Whether I agree or disagree is irrelevant.

“We’re a democracy so people have the right to express their views providing they do not break the law. I urge people to express their views respectfully and for those who oppose them to do so lawfully.”

Batchelor has talks booked throughout Aotearoa over a five-month tour, and said he plans to protest ahead of the election to have all political parties scrap co-governance.

He felt the complaints were “ridiculous” and wanted to hear the grounds the complaints were made upon since he was “supporting Māori” and democratic equality.

Paniora asked that Parker “act with urgency to invoke your powers pursuant to section 132 of the Human Rights Act 1993 and to seek to hold [Batchelor] accountable pursuant to Section 131 to avoid any further harm to our communities, society and country”.

She also said the tour breaches section 19 of the Bill of Rights Act 1990 which affirms the right to freedom from discrimination.

There were “so many people willing to fight this through the courts”, Paniora said, but it should not come to that, and she hoped Parker would put a stop to it.

She also wanted police to stop enabling Batchelor, by giving him free security during events.

Police earlier said they attended previous talks to ensure meetings were “conducted safely” and they would respond to any calls as they arose.

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon told Stuff there had only ever been a couple of cases heard under the legislation as it had a high threshold.

A Human Rights spokesperson said it did not have an investigations function on individual matters but can inquire on systemic human rights issues.

It also offered an impartial dispute resolution process for complaints regarding unlawful discrimination and a range of other forms of unlawful discrimination, including “inciting racial disharmony” known as the “hate speech” provision.

That provision made it unlawful to make statements that were “threatening, abusive or insulting”, and “likely to excite hostility” against a group of people because of their colour, race or ethnicity.

“However, it is not enough that the material is offensive or controversial – it must be at the serious end of the spectrum and likely to cause or exacerbate serious ethnic tension or unrest.”

Rulings by the Human Rights Review Tribunal and the courts have set the threshold for liability under section 61 at a high level in light of the right of freedom of expression under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.

It might be able to offer an impartial disputes process, and help those involved agree on resolutions, but even then, it could not investigate complaints or issue judgments.

“We do not have the ability to shut down public events or take any censorship action.'

Paniora argued that while the threshold was considered high, what Batchelor was preaching about had never been so blatant and “racist” before.

The HRC spokesperson said it supported co-governance “as a way to honour and realise what was promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi”.

“In order to honour Te Tiriti, constitutional transformation is necessary to rebalance the power between the Government and tangata whenua, so Māori can determine their own future and exercise tino rangatiratanga.”