Police watchdog to review Posie Parker’s ‘Let Women Speak’ event

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) will review the police response to Posie Parker’s ‘Let Women Speak’ event held in Auckland earlier this year.

British anti-transgender rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, self-described as a women’s rights activist and also known as Posie Parker, had to abort her two-event New Zealand tour when her planned speech in Albert Park was drowned out by counter-protesters.

Footage circulating on social media from the event showed a heated meeting of the two groups in Albert Park in central Auckland.

Keen-Minshull was doused in a bottle of tomato juice and had to be rushed from the park by security and her supporters. She was later escorted by police.

The IPCA has received 162 complaints about the policing of the event.

Of these, 34 were from people who attended and the rest were from concerned citizens who appeared to be responding to media and social media coverage, the IPCA said in a statement.

“The common themes of the complaints were lack of police action to protect Ms Parker and allow her to exercise her right to freedom of expression, and failure to prosecute in respect of assaults on Ms Parker and another woman.”

However, the IPCA noted charges have since been laid in respect of both assaults.

The terms of reference for the review are still being confirmed but it will likely cover the planning for the protest as well as the police response as the situation unfolded.

Prior to Keen-Minshull’s arrival in New Zealand, an online petition was launched calling for her to be kept out of the country.

Rainbow community groups Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Koāra and Auckland Pride jointly filed a judicial review application seeking an interim order to prevent her arrival.

After a two-hour hearing in the High Court at Wellington, which heard from the coalition of rainbow groups, Crown Law and intervenors the New Zealand Free Speech Union, High Court Justice David Gendall declined the application.