White pride group Western Guard says it has opened a Wellington chapter. Photo / Supplied
An Auckland-based "white pride" group is celebrating a successful public launch and says it has opened a Wellington chapter.
The group, calling itself Western Guard, says its website drew about 20,000 hits after it plastered posters around Auckland University yesterday with the slogans "White lives matter" and "Let's take our country back".
However its Facebook page has only 49 likes and 59 followers, including journalists.
Media picked up the story after a social media post by an apparent Auckland University student, Samantha Haid, saying she had taken down the group's posters.
Haid's Facebook page has been removed and Auckland University Students Association president Will Matthews said he believed it was fake.
"The profile picture appears to be of a woman in New York lifted from her profile," he said. "That's a very common tactic to turn up in these fake accounts."
But a source with knowledge of the people who started the Western Guard website said the group was genuine.
"Everything they say, they believe," he said.
The group says on the website that "a multicultural nation is no nation at all, but a collection of smaller ethnic nations ruled over by an increasingly overbearing State".
"Western Guard accepts and promotes the truth that it was white European peoples who - from a faraway continent - discovered and civilised these beautiful islands, building roads, schools, and hospitals, creating a better quality of life for ourselves and Maori alike," it says.
"In the near future this nation will no longer be predominantly white. Ask yourself, do you want to live in a country where white people are the minority? Do you want to live in South Africa or Zimbabwe?"
The website provides links to media reports of its launch, headlined: "They played right into our hands".
"There was a lot of abuse, but I think we had 20,000 hits in a single day, and that's because we were so bold," the source said.
"They are progressing well because they already have a Wellington chapter, they are going to put up posters shortly."
The group says on its website that recruits must be physically fit and cannot be "homosexuals, transsexuals or any other form of mental illness".
The source said the group was not trying to set up a militia, but simply believed in the value of physical and mental fitness.
"We are very against people getting fat, obesity, letting your bodies waste away," he said.
"Some famous Greek philosopher said it's a shame to live one's life without knowing the full potential of the human strength. At least at one point in your life you should be at peak performance.
"They are not creating a militia or anything like that, they are not that dumb - they are quite smart."
He said statistics showed that most pedophiles were "not straight", but the website's statements against homosexuality were "a bit of a blurry area".
"Transsexuals are there only just because that is you have given up on yourself and you are trying to restart as someone else. They don't want people to give up on themselves," he said.
He said the group believed that Europeans had built modern civilisation and were "always just two steps ahead in technology, timepieces, horology, the industrial revolution and what not".
"That all came from European ingenuity," he said.
"Africa - they are simply less evolved, they have a measurably lower IQ."
The source said "black pride" and "Hispanic pride" were celebrated, but "white pride" was not allowed in mainstream society.
"There is no place in the world where you can be white and say, 'this is our country'. "If you are a Chinese and live in New Zealand, you are a 'Kiwi' instantly," he said.
"Nobody knows about the South African genocide, nobody knows how many white people are getting killed every day in South Africa, nobody knows that that's what happens where white people become a minority."
The source said the group included working people as well as students and was not connected to the university.
Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy urged New Zealanders to stand up against the group.
"Aside from the racism issues, it's just full of hate and vile," she said.
"There's no doubt that we are seeing a rise in hate speech, or at least in people telling us about racist attacks. We can't deny that what is happening around the world is impacting us in New Zealand.
"That's why people need to take a stand against these things. We are looking at the statutory limitations, we are reviewing the legislation. All of the things around the Bill of Rights Act are very limited and seldom reach the threshold [for prosecution]."
Netsafe director Martin Cocker said the group's statements did not breach the Harmful Digital Communications Act because they did not threaten harm to any individual.
"In this case you have something which is harmful to groups, and therefore it becomes a matter for other laws such as censorship law."