A Wellington florist who claims to have been intimidated by Julie Anne Genter in her shop says the situation was made worse by the Green MP filming her on her phone ‘like something out of Police Ten 7″.
Genter has been working from home after a confrontation in Parliament’s debating chamber on Wednesday night, where she crossed the floor and waved a book in the face of National minister Matt Doocey.
The incident triggered multiple privileges complaints, with Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chloe Swarbrick calling the behaviour “completely unacceptable”.
It’s since emerged there was some sort of confrontation last week between Genter and the owner of Newtown’s Four Seasons Florist, Laura Newcombe.
Newcombe this morning said she still hadn’t heard from Julie Anne Genter or the Greens after speaking out about her experience last night.
She says Genter came into her shop sometime last week and the pair got into a discussion about how “Genter had advocated to get rid of every single car park at the shopping precinct”. Newcombe says the discussion quickly escalated.
“She was mean, she was saying some really mean things like ‘You must be really angry and full of hate’ and all of this sort of stuff.
“Then she pulled out her phone and then she put it in my face and she was filming and recording me and I was like, wow this is just really rude, and I said can you please leave.
“She was really slow to leave, she didn’t want to leave, she didn’t like that. And then she started screaming ‘you don’t care about my kids cycling’.”
Newcombe didn’t know why Genter filmed the exchange but thought it was “probably to humiliate me, to put me down, to make me feel low so she could feel superior and in control of the situation”.
She said it had the desired effect, leaving the florist feeling humiliated and worried.
“I thought, what’s going to happen to me? The imbalance of power was a concern immediately because I was like, wow am I going to get in trouble?
“I was so uncomfortable, it felt like something out of Police Ten 7, camera in your face, I didn’t like it.
“Why did she have to dig her heels in, why did she have to stay. Why did she have to pull out the camera and film me, it was just really intimidating.”
Newcombe estimates the exchange lasted between five to seven minutes.
“Lots of people said to me why did she come into your shop in the first place when it’s been well documented how I felt about car parks being removed, it was common knowledge, and she knew this as it was always on the cycle aware page. She would join in.”
Cyclist Patrick Morgan was wary of commenting on the exchange having no first-hand knowledge of it but said he has heard stories about Newcombe’s aggressive behaviour while never having witnessed it personally himself.
”Laura has a reputation in our neighbourhood of being a robust critic of the council and there are two sides to every story.”
It’s understood that on one occasion Newcombe delivered dead flowers to the council’s reception.
Newcombe said she didn’t see what happened between Genter and Doocey in Parliament until yesterday morning, but the minute she did she thought, “wow that’s exactly how she was to me. I felt like that National guy, I was a little bit stunned, I was taken a bit aback”.
Newcombe says she instantly recognised the behaviour, as did her friends and family who she’d told about the exchange in her shop.
“I’m just going to call out real bully behaviour, it’s unacceptable, it’s an abuse of her position, it’s unbecoming of an MP, it’s a power imbalance.”
On the flower shop complaint, Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick told the Herald the party’s leadership had not known about the incident before yesterday.
She said they had spoken to Genter about it and would not be disputing the story. It would be dealt with as part of the disciplinary process the Greens have begun.
Newcombe says speaking out has attracted some negative online reviews but after 30 years in business she’s developed a thick skin and can take it.
“There’s only a small minority of people who don’t appreciate me, there’s plenty that do.”
One customer who appreciates Newcombe’s business is Philip Allen, who was visiting the shop on Friday.
He said what happened in Parliament on Wednesday night was shocking.
”I just thought it was something you don’t see in a first world democracy, it’s the sort of thing you see on TV in other countries, and you think thank goodness it doesn’t happen here, but now it has.
”I think it’s the anger and the rage and discrimination... you sort of think, is this the angry society we’ve become now?
“It was just a bit sad irrespective of the political colour that sort of thing is happening in New Zealand politics now.”
Allen said he’d like to see all the parties come together and have a general agreement about standards.
“This might be a sign of the times; I’m not pointing the finger at the Green Party in particular. I just think there’s an undercurrent in Parliament of passive aggressive stuff and everyone needs to come together.”
He said as a house of representatives, politicians’ behaviour must represent how we want society to be.
PSA assistant secretary Fleur Fitzsimons was Labour’s Rongotai candidate in the 2023 general election and ran against Genter for the seat.
Fitzsimons told Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills she had not witnessed Genter behaving as she had in Parliament on the campaign trail.
Genter’s recent behaviour was not how politics should be done and it did “the left no favours”, Fitzsimons said.
Fitzsimons, also a former Wellington City councillor, said she tried hard to unite the community over cycleways when she was on the council.
”That involved making sure you listen to people who were vehemently opposed to your position and gave them the dignity of being heard as well as those who really supported your position.
“I was a fairly pro-cycleway councillor but cycleway politics and the division they caused in the community was the hardest political issue I’ve ever dealt with in my life.”
Fitzsimons said when she was running in the Southern Ward byelection to be a councillor, a Nazi-themed sign was placed on her fence after a protest over the Island Bay cycleway.
It read: ‘Return of the Third Reich’.
“That’s how full on it got”, Fitzsimons said.
Wellington City councillor Nicola Young told Mills all of her interactions with Genter have been “fine”.
However, she questioned the Green Party’s selection process in general.
”They’ve had car crash, or should I say bicycle crash, after bicycle crash this year and last year.”
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