New Zealand Free Speech Union

Not to be confused with Free Speech Coalition.

New Zealand Free Speech Union logo

The New Zealand Free Speech Union (FSU) is an organisation that advocates for freedom of speech. It was formed as the Free Speech Coalition in 2018 and relaunched as the Free Speech Union in 2021.

Goals and organisation

The Free Speech Union's stated goal is to defend and promote the free exchange of information and to educate people of the importance of free speech in New Zealand. Despite its connections to the right-wing New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, the group also claims support from both sides of the political and ideological spectrum. The group has also opposed hate speech legislation and censorship.

Since 2021, the NZ Free Speech Union is led by chief executive Jonathan Ayling, a former adviser to National Party Members of Parliament David Bennett and Simeon Brown. By October 2022, the Union claimed 1,500 paid-up members and 70,000 supporters. Since 2021, the organisation has two full-time staff based in Wellington as well as a part-time communications specialist. Notable members and supporters of the Union have included former National Party leader Judith Collins, ACT Party leader David Seymour, former Labour Party Chief of Staff Matt McCarten, formerly left-leaning journalist Chris Trotter, Auckland University of Technology history professor Paul Moon, University of Auckland academic and Jewish community leader David Cumin, and Taxpayers' Union co-founder Jordan Williams.

The FSU is the first sister group of the Free Speech Union of the UK and uses the name under license. It is a registered trade union based in Wellington, New Zealand. Reflecting its close relationship with the Taxpayers' Union, the two organisations' offices are located next to each other.

History and activities

Origins

The Free Speech Union was first established as the Free Speech Coalition by four people including lawyer, lobbyist, and New Zealand Taxpayers' Union founder Jordan Williams in July 2018 in response to the Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff's decision to cancel a speaking event featuring alt-right speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux at an Auckland Council-owned venue. The Coalition twice unsuccessfully challenged the cancellation at the High Court and the Court of Appeal. For its High Court challenge, the Coalition raised NZ$150,000 from over 2,000 donors.

Freedom of expression

In November 2021, the Free Speech Union supported Otago Regional Council councillor Michael Laws, who was the subject of a code of conduct investigation over his criticism of Council staff in the Otago Daily Times newspaper. The Union's Chief Executive Jonathan Ayling urged Council chief executive Sarah Gardner to withdraw her complaint and called for the council's code of conduct to be amended, claiming that it was being used as a "gagging order" to silence elected councillors who were representing ratepayers. The Union also offered its support to Laws. Laws was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing by the investigation.

Hate speech

During the 2019 Bay of Plenty local elections, the Free Speech Coalition criticised the Rotorua Lakes District Council for investigating mayoral candidate Reynold MacPherson for hate speech after he made comments likening Councillor Tania Tapsell to the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Coalition spokesperson Dr David Cumin emphasised that the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 "clearly stated everyone had the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form."

In June 2021, the FSU filed two successful legal challenges on behalf of the "gender-critical" group "Speak Up For Women" to speak on public premises. In addition, the Union mobilised opposition to the Sixth Labour Government's proposed hate speech laws in 2021. 80% of the 18,000 submissions on the hate speech legislation endorsed the FSU's submission opposing the law. As a result, the proposed legislation was shelved.

In mid February 2023, the Free Speech Union warned that it would take legal action against the Rotorua Lakes District Council over plans to progress a submissions policy that would ban offensive and threatening submissions. Ayling claimed that the policy infringed on free speech. Mayor of Rotorua Tania Tapsell responded that the council would respond appropriately and disputed assertions that the submissions policy infringed on free speech.

Academic freedom

In November 2021, the Free Speech Union expressed support for seven University of Auckland academics (the so-called "Listener Seven") who had been censured by the Royal Society for writing a controversial letter in the New Zealand Listener in July 2021 disputing the scientific legitimacy of Mātauranga Māori (indigenous Māori knowledge). The Royal Society also launched an investigation of three of the "Listener Seven," who were Fellows of the Royal Society. In response, Ayling urged other academics to defend science at their "own peril" and accused the Royal Society of "abandoning its own heritage and tradition of academic freedom." In response, the Free Speech Union created an academic freedom fund in December 2021 to support two of the academics under investigation including Garth Cooper.

On 15 August 2022, the Free Speech Union released its first Annual Universities Ranking Report, which graded New Zealand universities based on whether they encouraged free speech and freedom of expression on their campus. The only university to receive a "fail grade" was Auckland University of Technology, which the organisation alleged consistently opposed free speech and did not fulfill its role as a "critic and conscience" of society.

On 18 August 2022, the Free Speech Union held a public speaking event at the University of Otago's Dunedin campus featuring former broadcaster Peter Williams, Dunedin City councillor Lee Vandervis, and National Party Member of Parliament Michael Woodhouse. MPs from the Labour and Green parties declined to participate at the FSU-sponsored event.

Drag queen storytime

In early March 2023, the Free Speech Union defended Avondale Library's decision to host a drag queen storytime on free speech grounds, likening it to their earlier defence of Bethlehem College in Tauranga's decision to teach the traditional view of marriage in 2022. The reading session organised by "Pride Fest Out West" had been picketed by protesters who claimed that the event promoted child grooming.

Legislative procedure

On 15 March 2024, the FSU communicated its concerns to Leader of the House Chris Bishop about the National-led coalition government's repeated use of "urgency" in its first 100 days in power. They noted that 14 Laws have been passed in 17 weeks compared with average of 10 across a whole term. The FSU advised that bills passed under urgency get less scrutiny from MPs and the public, and can become law without going through the full Select Committee process. Further, they argued that the Government had not been mandated explicitly to pass legislation which was not included in the policy manifestos of any of the three parties in Government. In response, Bishop disagreed with the FSU's concerns that passing legislation under urgency amounted to a free speech issue and cancelled his membership.

Anti-gang legislation

In mid April 2024, the Free Speech Union joined members of the Black Power gang, the Human Rights Commission, Children and Young People's Commission and the New Zealand Law Society in criticising the National-led government's proposed Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill during its select committee stage. In his submission, President Ayling expressed concern that the Bill clearly did not define "what would be considered a gang." He questioned whether climate activist groups would be classified as gangs under the legislation and expressed concern that the Bill would suppress freedom of expression. 475

VUW free speech event

In late April 2024, Victoria University of Wellington's student magazine Salient sub-editor Henry Broadbent criticised the inclusion of FSU President Ayling's inclusion at a scheduled free speech event due to Ayling and the group's support for controversial anti-co-governance activist Julian Batchelor, and anti-transgender advocates Graham Linehan and Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull ("Posie Parker"). Broadbent claimed that the FSU was defending speech that fell under the United Nations' definition of hate speech. Salient met with VUW Provost/Acting Vice Chancellor Bryony James and Director of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor Reece Moores to express their concerns. Consequently, Victoria University postponed the debate to revise the format of the free speech event. In response, Ayling reiterated that the FSU Ayling "stood up for everyone's right to speak, and he found it ironic a panel discussion on free speech risked being shut down because of threats of boycotts and protests." Following student opposition, VUW postponed the free speech event until the end of May 2024. In response, Ayling denied promoting hate speech, saying "I challenge anyone to find references to me spouting hate speech of any kind. It is simply the fact - and my opponents will admit this - that I have defended speech rights of those who they claim have expressed hate speech."

2024 Unsilenced conference

In mid–May 2024, the Free Speech Union's chief executive Ayling defended the upcoming "UNSILENCED: Middle New Zealand on ideology" conference at Wellington City Council's Tākina Convention Centre on 18 May on free speech grounds. The conference had announced Family First New Zealand leader Bob McCoskrie Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki and former National Party MP Simon O'Connor as guest speakers. Protest groups Queer Endurance In Defiance, the Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition and Wellington City Council Māori Ward Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera had called for the conference to be cancelled for allegedly promoting transphobia. In response to the controversy, Ayling said that the Union had sent a letter to the venue remind them that public venues had a responsibility to respect everyone's rights.

Further reading

• Van Dongen, Yvonne (October 2022). "Voice Control". North and South. pp. 24–33. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 3 November 2022.

External links

• New Zealand Free Speech Union (official website)