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Welcome to Inside Politics. The way Winston Peters tells it, you might be forgiven for thinking that Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had gone on the rampage with a crowbar and smashed a window at his Auckland house after sending out his address on social media and whipping up a pro-Palestinian demo outside it.
Take out the Chlöe Swarbrick part because she didn’t do that and she wasn’t there, but she is being blamed for inciting a protest on Thursday night outside Peters’ home (a loud demonstration that ran from 6.30pm to 10pm), another on Sunday, and the attack on Monday night. She has been deemed guilty by association.
At a press conference on Monday about Israel intercepting a flotilla off Gaza, Swarbrick also stood next to the woman, Acacia O’Connor, who had shared Peters’ address online for last week’s protest.
And when asked whether she thought it was okay to protest outside MPs’ houses, Swarbrick suggested it was understandable: “Look, New Zealanders are angry, New Zealanders are upset ... Israel has illegally abducted three New Zealanders ... New Zealanders are wanting somewhere to express their frustration and understandably that frustration is directly colliding with the Members of Parliament who are impediments to progress on this kaupapa.”
Once we found out that the broken window had shattered over Peters’ sleeping labrador Kobe (pictured below), nothing Swarbrick could say could save her from condemnation. Peters even called her “Crowbar Chloe”.
Everyone has condemned the violence, including Swarbrick.
Peters is a genuine victim here, but boy, has he used it to maximum advantage.
“We must call out those members of this House who collude and collaborate with the very protesters targeting politicians’ homes. Do they have no shame? Do they feel so morally righteous that you and your supporters are justified to break any law, any taboo, any political norm? We say shame on you.”
Colleague Adam Pearse had it right in his commentary this week headed “...an ugly attack turns into ugly politics”.
In an unpleasant sequel, pro-Palestinian protesters found their way to the back of Parliament yesterday, where Peters’ foreign affairs adviser, Jon Johansson, was taking a quiet break. A Stuff video shows one of them haranguing him, accusing him of being a murderer, and forcing him to go inside to escape them.
The protest outside Peters’ house has highlighted the differences in party views on a bill before Parliament outlawing protests targeted at individuals’ homes and causing “unreasonable disruption” – the Summary Offences (Demonstrations Near Residential Premises) Amendment Bill.
Basically, the Greens think that Peters’ address should not have been shared, but it supports the right to target an MP’s home for protest.
Labour doesn’t think the address should have been shared and doesn’t think Peters’ house should have been targeted, but doesn’t think there should be a law banning it.
National, Act and NZ First supported the bill at first reading, and it has gone to the justice committee. So what does it do?
It does not ban all protests outside the homes of MPs, judges or directors. It creates a new offence if a person engages, or continues to engage, in a demonstration near any residential premises which is directed at any regular occupant of that premises and the person knows or ought to know that it is causing “an unreasonable disruption”.
It goes on to state that for the purposes of a prosecution and determining whether a disruption is unreasonable, the court must have regard to all relevant circumstances, including:
• The time of day at which the disruption started.
• The time of day at which the disruption ended.
• The duration of the disruption.
• The actions of the demonstrators during the disruption.
• The level of noise generated by the demonstrators during the disruption.
• The distance between the demonstrators and those premises during the disruption.
A person who commits an offence under the proposed law is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or a fine not exceeding $2000.
If the protest at Peters’ house had been a truly peaceful protest for a couple of hours in daylight, it is hard to imagine a prosecution sticking.
But if there is yelling, chanting and drumming to the extent noise officers are called, it goes well past bedtime, and people are intimidated by it, it would probably stick.
One of Parliament’s nice guys, Police Minister Mark Mitchell, was admitted to Wellington Hospital on Monday night after a chest infection turned nasty and spread. He was still there yesterday when I phoned him – and he said the Prime Minister had just been to see him. He was undertaking light duties, having held a Zoom call with members of the Peace Accord yesterday and having phoned into his regular Wednesday spot with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking.
“I’m definitely coming right,” he said, although he was still hooked up to various drips. The staff have been “quite outstanding”. He reckoned he was not getting special treatment and they had not known he was a Minister of the Crown for two days.
I’ve taken a special interest in Mitchell’s health since doing a story recently on his various afflictions, all related to his previous work as a police officer, including his susceptibility to chest infections because of toxic fumes he inhaled in a house fire in Gisborne. He has also had his face remade after an encounter with the Mongrel Mob and lives with permanent pain because of a stabbing incident.
Te Pāti Māori’s newest MP, former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara, will get sworn in today at the start of Question Time and deliver her maiden speech shortly after Question Time, about 3pm. It will be a bittersweet occasion, given the stunning victory she pulled off over Labour in the Tamaki Makaurau byelection – a majority of 3519 – but tempered by its necessity following the death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp in June.
Later in the afternoon, the party leadership will set out a promised “reset”. Tensions have been evident with Labour since Te Tai Tonga MP Tākuta Ferris questioned whether non-Māori Labour supporters should have been campaigning in the byelection. Since then, tensions within the party have emerged, with the demotion of Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi from the whip’s job and the distancing of Toitū te Tiriti from Te Pāti Māori last week.
However, Ferris may have a good excuse for not being at the reset. Paul Goldsmith’s bill amending the Marine and Coastal Area Act is returning from the justice select committee today for its second reading, some time after Kaipara’s maiden speech, and Ferris is the party’s expert on the bill.
See my profile on Kapa-Kingi and some of the issues that sit behind the problems within the party.
• The Greens have gone two full days without wearing their keffiyehs (Arab scarves) in the debating chamber. On Tuesday, Parliament marked the second anniversary of the Hamas massacre in Israel, and they did not wear them out of respect to the victims. Again yesterday, none of them wore them.
• A group of MPs is in Barbados this week at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni is leading the delegation. Others are National’s Dana Kirkpatrick, the Green Party’s Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan, and Labour’s Willie Jackson, filling in for Kieran McAnulty, who couldn’t travel because he was unwell.
• Chris Bishop, the Housing Minister and National’s campaign chair-in-waiting, is in Britain to speak to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week about how conservative parties need to take housing seriously.
“It’s the Greens – it’s the sanctimonious ‘tofu-wouldn’t-melt-in-your-mouth’ Greens – who are the ones who are driving the division and acrimony within our body politic, aided and abetted by Labour.” – National Minister Paul Goldsmith in Parliament yesterday.
“We have seen one of our own politicians [Benjamin Doyle] basically being bullied and harassed and violently threatened out of Parliament directly because of politicians’ words ... let’s not have memory loss and say this is the left only.” – Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson on Herald NOW yesterday.
What anniversary is the Waitangi Tribunal marking this year? (Answer at the bottom of this article.)
Goes to actor Acacia O’Connor for sharing Winston Peters’ address to encourage others to join an unreasonably disruptive protest outside his home. Not the way to win an argument.
Goes to Green MP Steve Abel for continuing to highlight the bill that Act minister Andrew Hoggard is taking through Parliament that will make life easier for mother pigs and piglets – but only after 10 years.
New poll: National dives into the 20s, NZ First climbs into double digits, centre-left bloc can govern
Opinion - protest controversy: Winston vs Chlöe: An ugly attack turns into ugly politics - Adam Pearse
Protest controversy: Chris Hipkins explains Labour position on protest outside homes after Winston Peters’ Auckland property attacked
Protest controversy: Man charged after Winston Peters’ Auckland home attacked with crowbar, claims Swarbrick’s rhetoric on Gaza incited vandalism
Opinion - Te Pāti Māori: ‘Lionesses do the hunting’ – the MP in the thick of Māori Party troubles – Audrey Young
Trespass laws: Government backs off five-year trespass notices, but concerns remain
Social media harm: Meta claims Instagram scrolling not ‘intentionally addictive’ as MPs probe social media harm
Crime & booze: New Zealanders are drinking less and violent crime is dropping. New data show how strongly the two are related
Quiz answer: The 50th anniversary.
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