Hero of the Week Award - The Dominion Post

Today, the Act Party ran a racist and divisive advertisement in the New Zealand Herald. The advertisement is headed Fed up with pandering to Maori radicals? Act's assumptions are completely ludicrous to anybody with half a brain.

Let's get something clear, Act does not want to help Maori, they want to further repress Te Reo Maori and limit the ability of school's to teach an official language of New Zealand.

Act are a bunch of horrendous hypocrites that believe in female subservience, repression based on race and economic position as well as eugenics for solo DPB mothers. They often advocate for more destructive policies to be implemented against the poor and a continuance of the war on beneficiaries that the National party announced earlier this year. Act is an embarrassment for New Zealand.

Scott over at Imperator Fish has photo-shopped a great piss take of Act's advertisement:

Click to enlarge

Act's advertisement today goes to show that the New Zealand Herald really does lean towards the right wing in its focus by publishing such propaganda.

Not only does the disgusting advertisement show a complete disregard for the internationally recognized Treaty of Waitangi, it provides justification for racist ideals that contribute to the repression of our indigenous people.

Such disgraceful advertisements grant acceptance to peoples negative attitudes and prejudices, which adds to New Zealand’s dysfunction. As bad as the advertisement was though, it pales in comparison to what John Ansell posted on Kiwibog and Don Brash wrote on Act's website today:

“Whether it’s the continued existence of the Maori seats when National promised to abolish them, unelected Maori boards at local government level, special status for Maori  under the RMA, the proposed control by Maori over flora and fauna, the intention to make it compulsory for teachers to learn Te Reo, or any form of preferential treatment for Maori, it’s time this insidious cancer was diagnosed for what it is – a type of apartheid – and excised," Dr Don said.

Is it just me, or is old Don Brash looking a bit desperate and senile? Act seems to be making a fuss just to get some attention, believing that this will somehow translate into votes. With such low poll results and no Woman willing to give the sexist party their support, it's likely that Act will be gone before lunchtime after the next election.

It's my belief that Act undertakes their extreme policies to make National seem reasonable in comparison. In this way they hope to get National back in power so that they can sell our SOE's. Act MP's like Roger Douglas have been salivating over the proposition to con Kiwi's out of billions of dollars.

Today's racist advert in the New Zealand Herald was authorised by Garry Mallett. He joined the ACT party in 1995, and is infamous for making a vomiting gesture in 2005 during a discussion about homosexuality.

It's not the first time Mallett's taken a few cheap shots at Maori. In 2009 a complaint was made by the Waikato Anti-Racism Coalition concerning an Act advertisement in the Hamilton This Week, which campaigned against Māori seats being established on the Auckland 'Supercity' Council. The advertisement contained the paragraph:

“Maori candidates promoting racist policies make themselves unattractive to the wider electorate and make their electoral failure a self-fulfilling prophecy.”  

Basic Principle 2 of the code says:

Advertisements should not portray people in a manner which is reasonably likely to cause serious or widespread hostility, contempt, abuse or ridicule.

The complainant wrote:

That the advertisement's portrayal of those attempting to improve representation in local government, and in particular on Auckland Super City, as the work of "scuzzy little racists" is offensive to the paper's Maori and Pakeha audience.

That for the same reason, and in addition the portrayal of attempts to improve Maori representation, as "attempts to infect our legal/electoral systems with racial prejudice", and the comparison of Chris Laidlaw's comments with Goebel's Nazi Germany propaganda, the advertisement also breaches the code regarding the denigration of such people.

The Hamilton This Week, wrote:

My colleagues here at Hamilton This Week, pride themselves on looking after their customers and readers. Therefore it is of a concern to me that you have received a complaint. Therefore, I have reminded my staff, that in the future, it would be advisable, to forward articles to the ASA, to gain your professional opinion and advice, prior to publication.

Garry Mallett submitted:

Now, I can't speak for the ASA, but I DELIGHT in pouring scorn, ridicule, derision, approbation on racist policies and those who promote them - "scuzzy little racists" is a totally appropriate term for the vile and despicable policies these people are promoting.

Surprisingly as many as four people "like" the white supremacist's FB page.

The majority of the Advertising Standards Authority Complaints Board was of the view that the advertisement did not reach the threshold to breach the codes provisions. A minority of the Advertising Standards board disagreed and believed the advertisement clearly identified a sector of society in a manner which was likely to cause serious and widespread offence.

The ASA must have a pretty high threshold to allow such divisive racism to be published in New Zealand. In my opinion the Complaints Board failed to adhere to the code (PDF) when they ruled to not uphold the complaint.

The Dominion Post have clearly learned from the previous complaint in deciding not to publish Act's propaganda. Today's advert contains similar racist sentiments and anybody who chooses to publish such rubbish, puts their credibility at risk. So well done Dominion Post, you're officially a Hero of the Week Award recipient.