Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
Question No. 3—Prime Minister
3. DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) to the Prime Minister: What advice or reports, if any, has he received regarding the rising threat of white supremacy in Aotearoa?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Prime Minister): Since becoming the Prime Minister and Minister for National Security and Intelligence, I have not received any reports or advice solely about the rising threat of white supremacy in Aotearoa New Zealand. I receive regular classified reporting on counter-terrorism, including on violent extremism, which I’m not in a position to detail in the House. However, I note that the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service released the New Zealand‘s Security Threat Environment Report 2023 on 11 August 2023. That report covered a range of security threats facing our country, and it stated that “White Identity-Motivated Violent Extremism (W-IMVE) continues to be the dominant IMVE ideology in New Zealand. Young people becoming [more] involved in W-IMVE is a growing trend. W-IMVE adherents in New Zealand express views, which include but are not limited to, rhetoric relating to anti-Semitism, anti-Rainbow Communities and various white supremacy narratives, such as anti-Māori and anti-Islam.”
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Does he agree that the use of divisive rhetoric or hate speech from political leaders—whether they are joking or not—can lead to violence against marginalised communities?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I believe that all political leaders have a responsibility to take care in the statements that they make about all of New Zealand’s citizens and groups, and we have a particular duty of care to ensure that the statements we make don’t inflame tensions, such as those I have just mentioned.
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: What is he doing to protect people’s ministries from acts of violence due to political incitement?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Of course, our public servants deserve our full support. They do not deserve to be demonised in the way that they have been. I don’t believe that making jokes about blowing people up is a particularly funny or responsible thing for political leaders to do.
Rawiri Waititi: Does he believe the ACT Party leader’s comments regarding the Ministry for Pacific Peoples—that he would send a guy called Guy Fawkes in there and it would all be over—have the potential to incite violence against Pacific people and the ministry itself?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: As I have indicated, I believe that political leaders all have a responsibility to be careful in the language that they use. I don’t think that making statements about blowing people up—even if they were, poorly, intended in humour—is the sort of thing that responsible political leaders should do.
Rawiri Waititi: Why did the Government, under his leadership, back down from passing legislation to protect marginalised communities from hate speech?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There are issues—legitimate questions—being raised around hate speech. It is a very fraught area because it does intersect with issues around free speech. That is why we have asked the Law Commission to do more work in that space, because we do acknowledge that there are pressing interests amongst the community for more action in this area but there are also countervailing concerns around the rights to free speech. We think that the Law Commission will be able to produce some recommendations that I hope we as a Parliament as a whole can actually debate in a constructive manner. I think that’s more likely after an election than immediately before an election, but I do think the issues that are being raised here should be taken seriously.
David Seymour: Does the Prime Minister then stand by the factually incorrect statement he made to Newshub on Saturday “The idea that you’d make a joke about blowing up an ethic minority is something that isn’t really that funny”, and, if he does not stand by that statement, will he apologise for confusing Government waste and a story about a Government department with a race of people, turning a debate into something it never needed to be?
Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes, I do, because, as I have also said publicly, I believe that member is deliberately and wantonly playing the race card in this election, and he should be ashamed of himself.
