2012

On Saturday 12 May I was most humbled to receive from Amnesty International the 2012 Human Rights Defender Award. There were many other strong nominees (see below). I thank...

I'm belatedly adding to my website a photo of me being invested as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit "for services to human rights advocacy" by...

In the world today, restrictions on political speakers visiting other countries affect left-wing speakers more than conservative speakers. But we should also defend the right of conservatives, like Canadians Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, to speak here. Otherwise we undermine our case.

I recommend the Select Committee not proceed with this Bill in its present form. Overall it puts New Zealanders in a worse situation than in already existing legislation, in relation to both their personal privacy and their right to untrammeled freedom of expression.

Main Point The NZ Intelligence and Security Bill unnecessarily allows for greater surveillance of New Zealanders by our intelligence services and intrudes further on our privacy. The definition of national...

Key’s posture is that human rights don’t really matter, or at least are secondary to maintaining warm relations with repressive governments.

Labour and the Greens should not be scared to support economist Arthur Grimes’ call for policies to bring down Auckland house prices by 40%. We don’t need to support all his policy suggestions. But let’s recognise that a 40% drop would only bring the Auckland median house price (now around $820,000) down to what it was four years ago ($495,000). Why not aim for that?

The use of this provision against political activists does sound alarm bells.