Many of the attendees at a protest against Auckland Council banning Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux feel they get a raw deal from media. So, here’s exactly what they said.

The events that led to the protest are already well covered. Auckland mayor Phil Goff stepped in to prevent two Canadian speakers from using Council venues, because such venues “shouldn’t be used to stir up ethnic or religious tensions.” Concerns had earlier been lodged by the NZ Federation of Islam Association about the tour, along with other groups. That in turn sparked outrage, and a protest was organised against the decision, along with the Free Speech Coalition raising $50,000 to fund a court action against Goff with the aim of reinstating Southern and Molyneux’s venue bookings.

It wasn’t actually the largest demonstration at Auckland’s Aotea Square on Saturday. That honour went to Falun Gong, who demonstrate regularly against the Chinese government. But it was certainly the most contentious. And while the protest was billed as a free speech event, the majority of the signs being held were about a British alt-right figure called Tommy Robinson, currently in prison after being convicted of contempt of court charges – charges that some of his supporters believe are politically motivated. Many of the speeches veered sharply away from free speech issues, to focus instead on warning against Sharia law, which the speakers said was taking hold in Britain.

And most of all, the protesters spoke of being misrepresented in the media, a theme which has been a constant in this short episode. Therefore I have decided to publish simply what people had to say, and present it below without comment so as to avoid such accusations.

“We’re here to fight for our rights being overtaken by minorities. Phil Goff sold out on his constituency.” – Glen, who didn’t give a last name.

“It’s good to see other anti-communists here.” – A man in his 20s, pointing at the Falun Gong demonstrators.

“No to Sharia, wake up NZ. That’s the best sign here.” – A man with a British accent.

“I think the left wing media are just not telling us the truth. I can’t bear to watch TVNZ, or read The Horrid, The Herald, because I just do not believe anything they say. They’re turning people’s heads, and you’ve got to go on to the internet to get balanced news. Everything is one sides, anyone speaks about freedom of speech gets called a racist, or a fascist. I’m certainly not a racist or a fascist. But uncontrolled immigration is changing society, and they never asked anyone.” – Mary, who used to live in Britain and Holland.

“Islam instructs its members to hate atheists more than Christians.” – Christopher Newman, from The First Nation Association of New Zealand, during his speech to the crowd. In an interview, he added “Sharia is just a very good entry point for a lot of people. The Sharia problem is linked in with a lot of Marxist activism – the two are united structurally and ideologically. They’re working together, and they have a hatred of Western society.” 

“Look the thing about free speech is that we’ve all got that in common. We’ve got different reasons for it being in common. I don’t agree with the people who are speaking out against Islam. And the Tommy Robinson issue – that’s actually a contempt of court issue, and ACT supports the contempt of court process, so I’m not opposing that either, but if they’re all here for free speech, that’s all that really matters for me.” – Stephen Berry, ACT Party.

“Stefan Molyneux, I haven’t followed so much, because his videos are about two or three hours long. But Lauren Southern, she does not say the things that people accuse her of. Labels such as Nazism, and Hitler ideology and fascism. They’re words that for me – I grew up in a strongly respectful to veterans family. I’m going to say it, there’s a sense of fascism growing on the left side of politics.” Elliot Ikilei, New Conservative deputy leader, discussing why he invoked figures like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela in his speech.

“This whole thing has nothing to do with free speech.” – A counter-protestor, who was involved in a heated argument with one of the demonstrators.

“Oh, you want to get ad-hominem? You’re getting ad-hominem.” – A protester’s response, later on in the rolling maul of the argument.

“That’s abysmal for a so-called journalist, to not know about such a huge subject. That’s indefensible on your part. I think when you want to do reporting, you really need to find out more about what’s going on before interviewing people. It’s very easy to google Tommy Robinson, and then you’ll learn.” – A woman who castigated me after I asked for her views on Tommy Robinson.

“Oh, you again.” – The same woman, when I walked past her later in the afternoon.

“Who are you with?” – A question from a man wearing a ‘Communism Kills’ t-shirt. I answered that I was from The Spinoff. “No, I don’t want to speak to you.”

“Oh, Tommy Tommy! Tommy Tommy Tommy Tommy Robinson.” – A chant that broke out periodically during lulls.

“Tommy Robinson is a right of centre activist, who is trying to prevent the Islamification of Great Britain. Quite rightly. And I know it’s happening here, because basically everything that stems from Britain makes its way here, and you can see that in the oppression of speech.” – A former British army and police veteran.

“I’m here to get laid. I came here to find available and gullible women.” – A man called Douglas, who was wearing a suit and smoking a cigarillo.

“Legalise marijuana!” – Some dude shouting from a car that was stopped at the lights.

“Should’ve gone ice skating. It would have been way more fun for everyone.” – Mike, who was just passing through, looking wistfully at the carefree people on the rink in Aotea Square.

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The purchase of four surveillance planes signals an even closer military alignment with the United States, and the reflects badly on our non-aligned status, writes former Green Party defence spokesperson Keith Locke.

It was disappointing to see a Labour-led government agree to spend $2.3 billion on four P8A surveillance planes equipped to detect and fight submarines. Back in 2000 a Helen Clark Labour-led government fiercely resisted an expensive upgrade the six P3 Orions for anti-submarine warfare. Clark commented: “Anyone who argues $560 million for the Orions when there is no evidence of hostile submarines in our area would have to be barking.” She said that good surface surveillance would not cost anything like the price of the then Project Sirius anti-submarine upgrade.

As the Green Party’s defence spokesperson back in those times I fully backed the rejection of Project Sirius and, what followed shortly after, the scrapping of our air combat force. We were moving towards an independent defence policy, with equipment procurement geared more to international peacekeeping, and the needs of South Pacific nations.

Now the Labour/NZ First coalition is turning the clock back, buying surveillance planes, optimised for anti-submarine warfare, which are only useful to fight alongside America in a major war. Tellingly, when the defence minister, Ron Mark, was asked if he also wanted a New Zealand air strike force back, he answered, “Yes.”

There are four big downsides to the purchase of the P8s. The first is cost. There are plenty of maritime surveillance planes with high technical specifications, that can be purchased for less than $100 million. Canada’s Field Aviation provides such planes for clients including Australia and Sweden. Most of the $2.3 billion to be spent on the P8s could be saved for needed social spending.

The second downside is that the P8s, as war-fighting planes, will spend much of their time overseas on exercises with Five Eyes partners, or on coalition missions, most likely in the Middle East. They will be less available for what we really need for fisheries patrols or search and rescue over our Exclusive Economic Zone, the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific.

The third downside is that we will be moving further away from an independent foreign policy, because the P8 purchase can only be interpreted as siding militarily with America against China. The New Zealand P8s will be fitted out with surveillance systems, communications platforms, and weapons targeting, all geared to be interoperable with the American and Australian P8s, so that the three nations can fight together.

This is at a time when on many issues New Zealand is more aligned with China than Donald Trump’s America – on trade, climate change, the Iranian nuclear deal, and support for the United Nations.

The fourth downside for New Zealand is the threat to our trade. Why should we so unnecessarily alienate China when, as a major trading partner, it has a capacity punish us through regulations, both subtle and unsubtle. China hasn’t gone down that path so far, seeing us as perhaps the most accommodating of its Five Eyes adversaries. But why push our luck? We are right to criticise China’s poor human rights record, and Beijing will have to swallow that. But it’s stupid for New Zealand to add to that “problem” by moving into an even closer military alignment with the United States.

The best role for New Zealand is as an independent player, acting as a mediator, peacemaker and a general advocate of progressive policies. Despite commentary to the contrary, we still live in the “benign strategic environment” that Helen Clark talked about back in 2001. Living at the bottom of the South Pacific nobody is likely to attack us. But there is plenty of work to do to make the world a peaceful place. Several countries are subject to internal armed conflict, or in a military contention with their neighbours. New Zealand can better help resolve such conflicts if it is seen as being independent and non-aligned.