Andrew Little said Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern "clearly have misled people" in trying to secure the Powerstation venue. Photo / Supplied
Andrew Little said Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern "clearly have misled people" in trying to secure the Powerstation venue. Photo / Supplied
"The sooner they get out of here the better," says Minister of Justice Andrew Little about Canadian provocateurs Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern.
They're not gone yet - the pair were in Auckland this morning pushing their version of events about the cancellation of the talk they were due togive at the Powerstation venue.
The cancellation brought an abrupt end to the planned event by the so-called "alt right" speakers and led to claims from both that fear or threats of violence were responsible.
While the Powerstation has said it simply didn't want to host the pair, there were also claims on Twitter today by someone claiming to have called in a bomb threat.
"That's one kind of freedom of speech you don't get to have and hold up with any kind of moral weight."
Little said: "Their message is insidious, it's nasty and of course you can say anything in the interest of freedom of speech but to just attempt to sow a destructive message … I'm glad they are going sooner rather than later."
Justice Minister Andrew Little - sooner alt-right pair go, the better.
Southern and Molyneux are in New Zealand as part of their multi-national roadshow, pushing several messages including claiming multiculturalism is a deliberate threat to Western civilisation.
Molyneux also cites debunked science claiming race determines levels of intelligence, while Southern has decried feminism and women's ability to hold leadership positions.
Last night, Southern and Molyneux posted a video on Youtube giving their version and interpretation of events - a move similar to tactics they have employed in other countries after taking issue with "fake news" reporting in mainstream media.
Southern said in the video she had rewritten her usual speech to include specific New Zealand content.
Being unable to give the speech meant she now had "all this semi-useless knowledge about New Zealand history and policies surrounding multiculturalism".
Molyneux said opposition from "leftists" in New Zealand didn't appear to be linked to their views but to some "goofy stances we did under some archway coming in".
A photograph of the pair appears to show them striking a pose under the tomokanga (carved gateway) at Auckland International Airport.
Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux at Auckland International Airport.
Molyneux blamed "the left" and media for creating caricatures of the pair as "ogres", rather than who they were.
"It's like they're rusty knights in search of an imaginary dragon. We were sort of joking that without us, what reason would they have to get out of bed in the morning.
"And because we aren't what they imagine, they have to invent or create us in order to motivate themselves to create some heroic fight."
Southern then said it was because people wanted to be involved in "their own civil rights movement" because "they have been told it is the greatest good to be involved in these civil rights movements".
"And because there isn't one in this day and age, there's no real oppression other than … the only laws I can think of that are biased against a certain race in the Western world are ones that are anti-hiring men and white people because of affirmative action … these battles have already won. So they do have to create these villains.
"We're not white supremacists or fascist."
She said protesters had not heard the pair speak and were "only repeating what the media have told them and the media are not a particularly clever lot, are they?"
Molyneux said the difficulty the pair had finding a venue was linked to multiculturalism and its impact on Western values such as free speech.
A protest against Molyneux and Southern at Aotea Square, Auckland.
"We had free speech, now we have multiculturalism and free speech is under significant attack and it is crumbling, in particular, in places like New Zealand."
Southern added: "If we are to have multiple cultures involved in every facet of our lives does that mean we now need to have witch doctors at our medical conferences or in our hospitals because we can't make Western medicine the supreme leading medicine in our society."
The pair were originally to speak at an Auckland Council venue but the booking was cancelled after Mayor Phil Goff said they were not welcome.
Having sought an alternative venue and landed a Powerstation booking, they then had that event cancelled by the owner who said she canned it after discovering it was Molyneux and Southern.
