Peters told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking on Wednesday morning he would not feel bad if the heckler lost his job. He said the man’s behaviour was “disgraceful” and had become far too prevalent in New Zealand.
Speaking at Parliament on Wednesday, Peters pushed back on those framing the “expletive-laden vitriol” as a freedom of speech issue.
“I’ve never heard such filthy language out in the public like that – foul, filthy language – and if you think that’s free speech, you couldn’t be more wrong,” he said.
Asked whether the worker should lose his job, Peters said that was an employment matter for the company.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told reporters Peters did not seem to be focused on the big issues facing the country.
“I’ve been interrupted by protesters before, it’s a bit annoying when it happens, but it happens,” Hipkins said.
“That’s the nature of living in a free democracy, where people have free speech, these sorts of things are going to happen.”
In a statement on Tuesday evening, the man’s employer – engineering company Tonkin + Taylor – apologised, and said a code of conduct investigation was under way.
“At Tonkin + Taylor we take our responsibilities as a major New Zealand employer seriously. We do not condone behaviour that falls short of our code of conduct.
“We sincerely apologise to the event organisers, attendees, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister Bishop, for the disruption caused.”
But the Free Speech Union said the incident had nothing to do with Tonkin + Taylor, and apologising off the bat set a “dangerous precedent” and sent the message that expressing political opinions in public was unacceptable.
“Individuals don’t forfeit their right to express political views just because they have a job,” spokesman Nick Hanne said.
“Employers don’t own employees’ time when they are commuting to work, and the choice to heckle Winston Peters has nothing to do with Tonkin + Taylor.”
Hanne said the Free Speech Union would be contacting Tonkin + Taylor, “urging them to respect their employee’s speech rights, and not to set a poor example to other Kiwi businesses”.
“The heckler was wearing a Tonkin + Taylor lanyard at the time, but it’s common practice for employers to ask employees to wear items like lanyards to help with workplace identification for reasons such as security.
“Companies can’t have it both ways: requiring employees to be identifiable for branding or security purposes, but not when expressing lawful personal views on their own time.”
Tonkin + Taylor declined to make further comment, as the matter was under investigation.
Tonkin + Taylor’s full statement
“We are aware of an incident at a media event at Wellington Railway Station this morning.
“We have confirmed the person involved is a Tonkin + Taylor employee. We are investigating in line with our code of conduct, and for privacy reasons we won’t be commenting any further.
“At Tonkin + Taylor we take our responsibilities as a major New Zealand employer seriously. We do not condone behaviour that falls short of our code of conduct.
“We sincerely apologise to the event organisers, attendees, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister Bishop for the disruption caused.”
– RNZ
