The Numerous Bad Takes About Tom Phillips' Death

The death of Tom Phillips, shot by police in a violent confrontation on 8 September 2025 in rural Waikato, is a heartbreaking chapter in a saga that has gripped Aotearoa for nearly four years.

Phillips, a fugitive father who vanished with his three children in 2021, met a tragic end after a shootout that also left one police officer critically injured. The loss of life, the trauma inflicted on Phillips’ children, and the pain endured by their whānau is nothing short of devastating.


Yesterday, RNZ reported:

 

Questions about the Marokopa children as Tom Phillips killed after four-year search 

 

The police shooting of a man after a burglary in Waitomo on Monday morning brings to an end one of the most unsettling incidents in recent New Zealand history: the disappearance of Tom Phillips and his three children from remote Marokopa.

For nearly four years Phillips lived in hiding, slipping in and out of sight across remote farmland and bush, while his children - Jayda, Maverick, and Ember - grew up in isolation from their friends, their family and community.

Their mother, Cat, described it as a living nightmare.

"They are who I am, and since they've been gone, I've lost my way. I'm not me. I'm lost. I'm lost without them."

 

Unfortunately, in the wake of this tragedy, a chorus of “cookers” and self-styled commentators have flooded the discourse with wild theories and baseless claims, showing a callous disregard for the families and children at the heart of this ordeal.

Among the most egregious voices is Cameron Slater, a blogger notorious for his inflammatory and false rhetoric. Slater has peddled the absurd notion that police deliberately laid a trap for Phillips, intent on gunning him down, ignoring the fact that only one police officer was initially involved. 

Slater's claims aren't only baseless but reek of the conspiratorial paranoia that has long defined his scribbling. But what makes these false claims even more telling is Slater's past posts, where he's defended the police shooting of Māori men, even in cases where the victims were unarmed, framing such incidents as necessary for public safety.

Cameron Slaters' selective outrage, cheerleading lethal force against Māori while crying foul over Phillips' death, exposes a hypocritical streak that undermines any shred of credibility the right wing propagandist once had.

The suggestion that police orchestrated a fatal ambush ignores the reality shown in the released photos: Phillips, armed with a rifle, shot a lone police officer in the head at close range, forcing the police officer to respond.

At time of writing, it appears that Phillips attempted to murder a police officer in a bid to escape and continue to hide in the bush with his three children, all of whom will be significantly traumatised by their ordeal. If Phillips' actions don't justify the Family Courts' initial decision to provide custody of the children to their mother, Catherine, I don't know what will.

Equally reckless is Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury, whose commentary on Twitter and The Daily Blog has veered into the absurd. Bradbury argues that the police were unjustified in returning fire, even after Phillips critically wounded an officer. This is lazy blogging at best, if not downright delusional.



On Monday, The Daily Blog posted:

 

The predictability of shooting Tom Phillips and the whitewash that will follow

The sad predictability of the shooting of Tom Phillips like a dog in front of his own child should surprise no one.

This Blog has predicted this very outcome for several years now.

The only blessing is the Police managed to not shoot the remaining children.

The current scramble by the cops in getting their story straight is helped by Journalists who never ask the hard questions.

We don’t even know how many shots were actually fired.

Bomber's claims defy logic. A man who appears to have initiated a shootout, endangering lives, including the lives of his children, cannot reasonably be painted as a victim. Bradbury’s fixation on the number of shots fired, demanding precise details as if they unlock some grand conspiracy, details that won't be available until forensics are completed, is particularly nonsensical. Such speculation fuels mistrust without evidence, distracting from the gravity of the incident and the trauma of those involved.

The media, too, has not escaped the trap of sensationalising this tragedy. Reports claiming Phillips “riddled” a police vehicle with bullets have been published by Stuff, yet only four bullet holes were found in the vehicle (five according to The Herald). The description of a “high-powered rifle” has also been reported, despite no specific details on the weapon’s model or calibre being released by police.


Yesterday, Stuff reported:

What the images tell us about Tom Phillips’ last moments

A police car riddled with bullets sits in the middle of a rural road, surrounded by bush.

Its driver and right passenger doors are wide open, the boot lifted. At least four bullets have pierced the front window.

Tom Phillip’s body lies on the tarseal of Te Anga Rd just metres away.

His quad bike is pulled to the side of the road, nestled against the bush. It’s loaded with what looks like buckets and supplies.

This sloppy reporting inflates the narrative, painting a picture of a one-sided gunfight that obscures the chaotic reality of the encounter. It's likely that the police officer, who is still in hospital for ongoing treatment, was shot before trying to retrieve his gun from the boot of his vehicle. That's the story the photos tell. The initial lone confrontation and critical injuries categorically show that this wasn't a police trap to gun down a fugitive.

Embellishments about Phillips' weapons or the police intending to shoot Phillips dead are clearly not required, and do a disservice to the public and, more critically, to the families grappling with the aftermath. Phillips’ children, now aged 9, 10, and 12, have endured years of isolation and uncertainty, only to lose their father in a violent clash, a tragic ending that the eldest child likely witnessed.

Their mother has spoken of her relief at their safe recovery but also her profound sadness. The whānau, already burdened by years of public scrutiny, deserve space to heal, not a barrage of conspiracy theories and exaggerated headlines. The officer’s family, too, faces an agonising wait as he undergoes multiple surgeries.

This tragedy underscores a broader failure: a society quick to sensationalise rather than reflect. The cookers, bloggers, and media outlets peddling half-truths and wild claims are exploiting other people's tragic events for clicks. Aotearoa deserves better...a discourse grounded in facts, empathy, and respect for those whose lives have been irrevocably altered.

Israel Continues to Lie About Gaza’s Starvation Crisis

In the grim shadow of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe, a sinister disinformation campaign, orchestrated by Israel and amplified by right-wing politicians and propagandists, seeks to obscure the deliberate starvation of Palestinians. This grotesque manipulation of truth, peddled by figures like New Zealand’s Cameron Slater, Juliet Moses, Ani O’Brien, and Rachel Stewart, attempts to whitewash a genocide by blaming Palestinian suffering on medical conditions or external failures, while Israel’s blockade strangles even more innocent civilians to death.
 

On Monday, the Las Angeles Times reported:

Israelis rebuff Trump, insisting images of starvation in Gaza are ‘fake’

The Israeli government is defending a top military officer who dismissed images of starving Palestinians as “fake” over the weekend, despite President Trump stating Monday that he believes the pictures are real.

The rupture comes amid growing international pressure on Israel over dire circumstances in the Palestinian enclave, and as two Israeli human rights groups, in a first, characterized the Israeli operation in Gaza as a genocide.


In recent days, photographs and videos of desperate Palestinians crowding aid stations and of emaciated children have spread across the globe. Even so, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Sunday that “there is no starvation in Gaza.”

And on Sunday, during a press tour of a small area of the Gaza Strip, Effie Defrin, a commanding officer and Israel Defense Forces spokesman, told reporters that visuals emerging from Gaza were “breaking our hearts.”

“But most of it is fake, fake distributed by Hamas,” Defrin said. “It’s a campaign. Unfortunately, some of the Israeli media, including some of the international media, is distributing this information and those false pictures, and creating an image of starvation which doesn’t exist.”

Much of the mainstream media, too often weak in the face of Israel's propaganda machine, has often been complicit in amplifying these lies, failing to challenge the narrative with the rigour it demands. As the United Nations, aid agencies, and even starving Hamas prisoners bear witness to this engineered famine, the world must confront the moral bankruptcy of those who excuse Israel’s actions while children waste away in front of our eyes.

Israel’s campaign hinges on a cruel distortion: that images of emaciated Palestinian children, like one-year-old Muhammad Zakariya al-Matouq, reflect pre-existing medical conditions rather than widespread starvation. Right-wing propagandists in New Zealand have eagerly echoed this disgusting lie. Rachel Stewart, in a venomous X post on 1 August 2025, criticised Stuff for supposedly using a photo of a “malnourished” Gazan child, falsely claiming the New York Times retracted its use due to the child’s cerebral palsy.

Juliet Moses, Cameron Slater, and Ani O’Brien have similarly been cited for pushing this narrative, alleging media exaggerate starvation to vilify Israel. These claims, rooted in selective truths, ignore the undeniable: Muhammad’s condition worsened due to Israel’s blockade, which denies food and medical supplies, as confirmed by his doctor. This tactic, highlighting medical issues to dismiss intentional starvation, is a hallmark of Israel’s “Pallywood” propaganda, designed to dehumanise Palestinians and deflect blame.

The mainstream media’s susceptibility to this disinformation is a scandal in itself. Outlets like the New York Times and BBC have faced criticism for initially omitting medical context in stories about children like Muhammad, but their clarifications, such as the Times’ note on 23 July 2025, affirm that starvation compounds these conditions. However, when propagandists like Moses and Slater seize on these oversights, they distort the narrative to suggest no famine exists, a claim contradicted by overwhelming documented evidence.
 

On 23 July, PBS reported:

More than 100 aid groups sign open letter warning of starvation in Gaza

Experts say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and offensive, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The head of the World Health Organization said Gaza is “witnessing a deadly surge” in malnutrition and related diseases, and that a “large proportion” of its roughly 2 million people are starving.

Israel says it allows enough aid into the territory and faults delivery efforts by U.N. agencies, which say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of security.

...

In an open letter, 115 organizations, including major international aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps and Save the Children, said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, “waste away.”

The letter blamed Israeli restrictions and “massacres” at aid distribution points. Witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on crowds seeking aid, killing more than 1,000 people. Israel says its forces have only fired warning shots and that the death toll is exaggerated.

The Israeli government’s “restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,” the letter said.

The World Health Organisation reported 63 malnutrition deaths in July alone, and one in five children under five facing acute malnutrition. But the true picture will be much worse. The media’s failure to consistently challenge Israel's disinformation about the cause of these deaths and mass starvation, often due to fear of being labelled antisemitic, allows these disgusting lies to fester, undermining the truth of Gaza’s man-made famine.

Israel’s blockade, intensified from March through to July 2025, slashed aid to a trickle, compared to the 500–600 trucks required each and every day, as per UN estimates. The Gaza Health Ministry reports 127 hunger-related deaths since October 2023, including 85 children. Of course, given the difficulties in locating people who have starved to death in a "war" zone, this will be an underestimation. Even Hamas prisoners, held in dire conditions, are starving, not because of Hamas’s actions, but because Israel’s restrictions ensure there’s not enough food to go around.

The claim that Hamas diverts aid lacks evidence; USAID and UN reviews, who have no reason to counter the Israeli narrative other than to tell the truth, found no systematic theft. Yet, Israeli officials like David Mencer and Benjamin Netanyahu shamelessly blame Hamas and the UN, accusing them of engineering shortages while ignoring Israel’s role in blocking aid. This is a grotesque inversion of responsibility: Israel, not Hamas, is starving both civilians and prisoners. They are doing this with the help of many western leaders, including Donald Trump, whose propaganda concerning the genocide is often just as dishonest as Israel's. The atrocities we are witnessing would end tomorrow if Western leaders truly wanted them to.

The disinformation campaign also targets the United Nations and surrounding countries, falsely claiming they fail to distribute aid. Israel’s ambassador Danny Danon accused UN aid chief Tom Fletcher of colluding with Hamas, offering no evidence at all to back up his false claims. COGAT, Israel’s aid coordination body, claimed 4,500 trucks entered since May 2025, but the UN notes these are insufficient and face military restrictions, rendering distribution nearly impossible.

Airdrops, lauded by Israel and the US as major humanitarian gestures, are a farcical distraction. UNRWA’s Philippe Lazzarini called them “expensive, inefficient, and dangerous,” with many landing in the sea or without parachutes, killing desperate civilians. The US and Israel’s Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supposedly replacing UN systems, has been a complete disaster, with over 1,000 Palestinians killed at its militarised aid sites so far. Many of these civilians are being murdered by Western soldiers who then return to their home countries without any consequences.

The United States and Israel's theatrics of providing aid mask the reality that aid volumes are a fraction of what’s required. The World Food Programme warns of famine-like conditions for 470,000 people, making a joke of the promise that this type of genocide would never happen again.

The right-wing's lack of action to curb this crisis, enabled by a disinformation campaign and amplified by discredited muckrakers like Slater, Moses, O’Brien, and Stewart, isn't just dishonest, it’s complicity in genocide. The blood of these starved children is on their hands. By parroting Israel’s lies, they obscure a crisis where women and children die daily from hunger, their bodies “eating themselves” in a slow, cruel death, as Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan described. The UN’s Michael Fakhri calls this “the fastest starvation campaign in modern history,” preventable yet enabled by international inaction and impunity.

Two Israeli human rights groups, B’tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, have labelled it a genocide, citing deliberate starvation tactics, which is clearly another war crime perpetrated by Israel and its accomplices. The mainstream media must reject their propaganda, amplify the voices of the besieged and starving, and hold Israel accountable. New Zealanders, too, must see through the lies of local propagandists and demand justice for Gaza’s rightful inhabitants. Because if we don't stop this type of genocide, aided and abetted by right-wing propagandists, it will continue into other countries, perhaps even your own.

Judith Collins - Arsehole Of The Week

In a move that reeks of authoritarianism, Judith Collins, as chair of Parliament’s Privileges Committee, has overseen the unprecedented suspension of three Te Pāti Māori MPs...Rawiri Waititi, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, and Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke...for performing a haka in protest against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. This 21-day suspension for the co-leaders and seven days for Maipi-Clarke, without pay, is not just a slap in the face to Māori representation; it’s a blatant attack on democratic expression. Collins calls it “intimidating” and the “worst” behaviour she’s seen in Parliament. Really, Judith? Let’s unpack your own rap sheet and see how it stacks up.

Yesterday, RNZ reported:

The House: Parliamentary privileges - Race as an aggravating factor?

Analysis: On Wednesday, Parliament's Privileges Committee released its final report into the MPs who protested the Treaty Principles Bill with a haka in the House in November 2024.

There was surprise and shock over the recommended punishments for Te Pāti Māori MPs, which seemed both unprecedented and extreme.

 

In retrospect, considering this week's response from Parliament's Speaker, the advice now available from Parliament's Clerk, and Committee Chair Judith Collins' public defence of her own report, that the initial reaction was overly calm. The committee report now appears partisan, indefensible and open to attacks of racism.

…

The committee particularly asked for contextual information about penalties. One member even asked for information about imprisonment.

 

Collins, who is likely the committee member who proposed locking up Māori Party MPs for doing a haka, has a knack for tossing red meat to the racists. Her 2021 speech criticising Labour’s treaty-focused policies as “separate systems” was clearly dog-whistling, stirring up anti-Māori sentiment while feigning concern for disaffected white New Zealanders. Her selective outrage...praising ACT’s C-word slinger Brooke van Velden while crucifying Māori MPs for a haka, shows a double standard based solely on her racism and political alliances.

The haka in question, a cultural expression of resistance widely used throughout New Zealand, didn't even temporarily disrupt the vote (as Collins claimed), on a bill that many see as eroding the Treaty of Waitangi’s foundations. The vote had already occurred before the haka comenced, which was a powerful, non-violent act of dissent. Yet Collins and her committee have weaponised parliamentary rules to try and silence Māori voices.

This is an undemocratic misuse of parliament’s processes, which have been weaponised to punish MPs for peacefully representing their constituents’ outrage. Labour, Greens, and Māori Party members have slammed the penalties as excessive, with Te Pāti Māori’s lawyer, Tania Waikato, calling it an “absolute disgrace.” Collins’ claim that this isn’t about tikanga but about “impeding a vote” is a flimsy excuse to dodge the cultural insensitivity she has put in play. I mean what’s next…sending MPs to the privileges committee for using filibustering to impede a vote?

Now, let’s talk further about Collins’ own track record. In 2014, Collins was sacked as a minister under John Key for her role in the “Dirty Politics” scandal, orchestrating National Party smear campaigns through right-wing bloggers like Cameron Slater. Hypocrisy much? She’s no stranger to undermining democracy when it suits her. Then there’s her 2009 comment about “fat people” clogging up healthcare, a callous jab that dehumanizes an entire group while deflecting from the systemic issues that cause obesity, health issues that many of National’s polices only exacerbate. Then there’s her death threat. In 2013, she told a journalist investigating her conflicts of interest to “meet his maker,” an open call for his killing that’s far more intimidating than any heartfelt haka.

Collins’ selective outrage is telling. She praised ACT’s Brooke van Velden for using the C-word in Parliament, calling it “standing up for herself,” yet a Māori cultural protest is “unprecedented” and deserving of draconian and unprecedented punishment. This double standard exposes a deeper issue: Collins and her ilk are comfortable with parliamentary “civility” only when it upholds their interests and the status quo. The haka challenged that, and they can’t handle it.

This suspension isn’t just about three MPs; it’s about silencing Māori resistance and punishing those who dare disrupt a mechanism of colonial repression. Collins’ history of dirty tactics, divisive rhetoric, and outright threats to private citizens shows she’s no guardian of democracy. If anyone should be suspended, it’s her, for a career of racism and dirty political tactics.

Judith Collins earns this week’s Arsehole Award for suspending Māori MPs over a haka while her own rap sheet (smears, threats, and racist insults) stinks worse than a leaking landfill. Her undemocratic power trip proves she’s less about parliamentary order and more about keeping Māori in check. It’s well past time Judith Collins bowed out of politics. Her particular brand of racism and bias is no longer acceptable in a multicultural country that is eager to move forward.

Rhys Williams - Arsehole of the Week

It’s time to shine the spotlight on a particularly vile specimen slithering through New Zealand’s political underbelly: Rhys Williams, this week’s Arsehole Award winner. Williams is a NZ First party activist (who didn’t renew his membership), and has carved out a niche as a homophobic, defamatory troll, hiding behind the X handle @2ESTEKA to spew venom at anyone who dares challenge his political party or narrow worldview.

His targets? Basically anybody who speaks out against NZ First, but mainly Green MP Benjamin Doyle, Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, and even a 25-year-old student, who had the temerity to criticise NZ First, in his blinkered line of sight. His brand of bigotry is unfortunately a recurring theme among right wing attack dogs. It’s a major problem for them, being that most people in New Zealand aren’t homophobic. In fact Williams’ online campaigns against LGBTQ+ people are a compendium in hypocrisy, cowardice, and malice…qualities that make him a standout for all the wrong reasons and therefore highly deserving of this week’s ignominious Arsehole award.

Let’s start with the homophobia. Williams’ campaign, along with other right-wing propagandists such as Ani O’Brien and Cameron Slater, against Benjamin Doyle, a Green MP who uses they/them pronouns, was a vicious smear fest, falsely alleging misconduct based on Doyle’s private Instagram posts. Williams' anonymous account became a cesspool of slurs and calls for attacks, not just on Doyle, but also on the broader rainbow community. And just like Brian Tamaki instructing his Destiny Church followers to undertake attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, there is no doubt that Tamaki’s associate Rhys Williams has incited further discrimination and crimes of hatred against an already marginalized group of people.



Chlöe Swarbrick, a staunch defender of Doyle, also received Williams’ trade-mark defamatory spite, with Williams’ posts dripping with bigotry and derision. However, his attacks weren’t limited to MPs; he also targeted a student, which included him personally calling a reporter to drum up support for his political vendetta. This is the kind of gutless, personalised nastiness Williams thrives on, while, hilariously, whining about the need to stay anonymous because “attacks can become nasty.” Pot, meet kettle. The hypocrisy is so thick with Rhys Williams that you couldn’t cut it with a chainsaw.

The similarity with another online troll, Cameron Slater, who was also outed after making defamatory posts, is worth noting. Like Slater, Williams wanted to hide behind pseudonyms and anonymity while conducting his rancid online political campaigns, because they need the freedom to defame, degrade, and incite hatred without consequence, which isn’t really a valid reason for keeping their names secret.

Like most narcissists, Williams is happy to dish out the hatred, but cries foul and tries to minimise his behaviour when the spotlight turns on him. Stuff NZ unmasked him as the puppet master behind @2ESTEKA, revealing a man who not only targeted Doyle and Swarbrick but also slung defamatory insults towards anybody questioning or reporting on his despicable behaviour. If they happened to be female, they’d also receive Williams’ trademark misogynistic bile. This is a insecure man who dishes out abuse but can’t handle the heat when his own name is attached to his actions.

In effect, Rhys Williams is a classic coward, undertaking vile campaigns that typify the right wings’ modus operandi of dishonest underhanded campaigning. When caught out, they act like the victim while using any attention to try and gain support for their political campaigns. Unfortunately for them, attaining the narrative in this way also comes at the cost of their credibility.

Legal experts Steven Price and Graeme Edgeler have weighed in, and their verdict is damning. They’ve flagged Williams’ content as likely to cross into defamation, with false allegations that could cause real harm. Williams’ posts aren’t just offensive…they’re legally actionable, because they potentially endanger the personal safety of Williams’ targets. This isn’t just a case of “free speech”; it’s a calculated political campaign and attempt to ruin people’s lives while hiding behind anonymity.

And what of NZ First, Rhys Williams’ natural home? Initially, they were happy to let his bile flow, following along and amplifying his attacks on Doyle. Winston Peters even echoed some of Williams’ defamatory posts in his media stand-ups. But now, with Williams’ ugliness exposed in the cold hard light of public attention and his campaign against Doyle a complete failure, they’re scrambling to distance themselves. This disassociation is entirely unbelievable as NZ First associates even paid for the Inflection Point meeting that Williams organised, a meeting that was openly hostile, like the Nazis, to trans people. It’s a pathetic backpedal from a party that’s shown time and time and again it’s happy to flirt with divisive rhetoric until it becomes inconvenient.

Rhys Williams is the epitome of everything wrong with the right wings’ anonymous online campaigns of hate. He’s a homophobic, hypocritical bully who targets political opponents with lies, then plays the victim when called out. His defamatory campaigns, as Price and Edgeler note, aren’t just cruel, they’re dangerous! NZ First’s attempt to wash their hands of him is understandable, but only underscores their own complicity in such dirty campaigning.

He’s not going to like what it means, but Rhys Williams’ defamatory posts and mainstream media exposure have won him an Arsehole of the Week award, and no secret accounts can hide that fact. Now, it’s time Williams slunk back into the sewer and a life of mediocrity where he belongs.

NZ First Resorts To Dirty Politics 2.0

It’s a grim day for New Zealand when the stench of dirty politics once again wafts back into the public domain, and NZ First, under Winston Peters’ befuddled leadership, appears to be at the heart of it. An exposé by The Post today lays bare a coordinated campaign of online vitriol and personal attacks, with right-wing disinformation bloggers seemingly enlisted to smear anyone daring to criticise the coalition of chaos and their socially destructive policies.

Clearly, this isn’t the politics Kiwis voted for. No one ticked the box for underhanded digital attacks or the resurrection of Cameron Slater’s infamous “Dirty Politics” playbook to once again infect our political discourse. Yet here we are, watching a desperate right-wing stoop to new lows, targeting critics with vicious online vitriol designed to defame and discredit, including an extended attack on a 25-year-old student who was driven to suicidal despair. It’s another shameful chapter about the right-wing's disinformation tactics, and NZ First’s fingerprints are all over it.
 

Today, The Post reported:

Inside the murky evolution of Dirty Politics 2.0

A Sunday Star-Times investigation reveals how keyboard warriors have found a home in NZ First’s orbit, reviving attack-style politics, report National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance and investigative reporter Charlie Mitchell.

 

...

 

The journalist hung up, unsettled by the conversation. He chose not to follow up. But in the days afterwards, it became clear the tip was linked to a loosely coordinated, fiercely partisan network of online accounts that had formed in the orbit of NZ First.

…

The caller was Rhys Williams, a Taranaki businessman behind an influential X (formerly Twitter) account. The account had previously targeted Green MP Benjamin Doyle, sparking a wave of backlash that at times veered into personal abuse.

…

Others joined in. Sean Plunket, founder of The Platform media outlet, who has tangled with the student online, taunted him with a cryptic jab on X. Political operative Glenn Inwood and property developer Vlad Barbalich — both known associates of Williams —shared similarly veiled references. There appeared to be foreknowledge.

That evening, Williams named the student publicly.

…

The online reaction was swift and vicious. Commenters called the student “sick” and “deranged”. One post, shared by Williams, likened him to serial killer Ted Bundy.

Inwood and Barbalich shared the post, as did Cameron Slater, the former Whale Oil blogger once synonymous with such attacks.

So much for freedom of speech.

The extended Post article pulls no punches, detailing how NZ First appears to have tapped into a network of online operatives to silence online dissent. This isn’t speculation, it’s a pattern echoing the dark days of 2014, when Nicky Hager’s Dirty Politics exposed Cameron Slater’s Whale Oil blog as a weapon for National Party insiders. Slater, a self-styled attack dog, was paid to churn out defamatory hit pieces, often with direct input from National Party MPs including the likes of Judith Collins, who had to resign her portfolios as a result.

Fast forward to 2025, and the tactics haven’t changed, just some of the players. NZ First seems to have adopted this same cynical strategy, weaponising social media to crush critics and protect the current government’s fragile grip on power.

At the centre of this latest storm is Rhys Williams, a figure now scrambling to distance himself from NZ First after The Post blew the lid off his campaign against a young student. This 25-year-old, whose only crime was voicing criticism of NZ First, became the target of a relentless online onslaught, orchestrated through shadowy right-wing channels and employing the services of experienced propaganda operatives. Although he broke the first rule of combating the political fascists in New Zealand, to not have anything they can use against you, the 25-year-old student really shouldn’t feel bad about how effective their strategy of hatred towards opponents is. New Zealand would be astounded to learn about the number of people who have been destroyed by the right-wing in their attempt to hold onto power.

The result of their latest campaign of hatred? A young Kiwi pushed to the brink of suicide, their mental health collateral damage in the right-wings' quest for total control. Williams’ attempt to backpedal, claiming no formal ties to the NZ First party, reeks of disingenuousness. The Post reveals his deep connections to NZ First’s inner circle, and his sudden plea of independence feels like a panicked attempt to dodge accountability and retain whatever semblance of credibility he has remaining, which is very little after the Benjamin Doyle scandal he created fizzled into nothingness.

🚨 Rhys Williams last week revealed as the individual behind the @2ETEKA account that led the failed takedown attempt of Green MP Benjamin Doyle is as we now also know the one and the same person behind last year’s controversial Inflection Point conference which featured a who’s… pic.twitter.com/FBxaWkvBlm

— Kelvin Morgan 🇳🇿 (@kelvin_morganNZ) April 16, 2025

Winston Peters should know better than to associate with such discredited muckrakers. For decades, he’s positioned himself as the maverick outsider, the voice of “the people” against elite machinations. Yet here he is, seemingly endorsing the same underhanded tactics he once decried. Kiwis didn’t vote for this. They didn’t sign up for a government that bullies its citizens into silence or outsources its dirty work to online attack squads. Peters’ legacy, already a patchwork of populism and pragmatism, risks being further tarnished by this descent into the gutter. If NZ First is so confident in its mandate, why resort to such desperate measures? The answer is clear: they’re rattled, and they’re willing to sacrifice decency to cling to power at any cost.

The right-wing’s reliance on coordinated online attacks is a sign of weakness, not strength. As The Post notes, these tactics are a “murky evolution” of the Dirty Politics era, leveraging platforms like X to amplify smears and drown out dissent. It’s a coward’s game to do the dirty work while politicians like Peters maintain plausible deniability. But the public isn’t stupid. The backlash against this campaign, especially after its devastating impact on a young student, will show that most right-minded Kiwis reject this brand of sewer politics. The right-wing’s desperation to control the narrative only exposes their fear of accountability.

This isn’t just about NZ First or Rhys Williams’ convenient amnesia. It’s about a broader rot in our political discourse, where critics are fair game for destruction, and mental health is just collateral damage. Cameron Slater’s shadow looms large, a reminder of what happens when attack politics and online defamation festers unchecked...even by our courts.

Some may have thought we’d moved past these types of tactics after 2014, but NZ First’s apparent embrace of Dirty Politics 2.0 proves otherwise. If Winston Peters had any morals left he would come clean, disavow these underhanded tactics, and face the public he claims to serve. Anything less is a betrayal of the trust some voters placed in him and NZ First. He won't of course. Because he's essentially a coward! But in the long run that won't matter. The right-wing’s digital hit squads might be loud, but the voice of the voting public will always be louder.

Cameron Slater's Selective Outrage Over Benjamin Doyle

Cameron Slater, the once-feared Whale Oil blogger now pathetic bedroom hack, is back at it again, flogging a dead horse while the rest of the right-wing propaganda circus has packed up and left town. His latest fixation? Green MP Benjamin Doyle, whose private social media account sparked a brief, baseless frenzy among the right wing conspiracy crowd. But while even the most rabid propagandists have moved on, Slater’s still out there, ranting like a man unhinged, desperate to keep the Doyle story alive. It’s not just pathetic…it’s peak hypocrisy from a man who’s made a career out of selective outrage.

Doyle’s private account raised a few eyebrows until the MP delivered a clear, forthright explanation that shut down the speculation. No scandal, no conspiracy—just a personal account blown out of proportion by the tinfoil-hat brigade. The evidence was flimsier than a paper tissue, and most of Slater’s allies, sensing a dud, quietly dropped it. Even the frothiest commentators, such as Sean Plunket (who had previously defamed Doyle), realised there was no story here. But not Cam. He’s still spinning wild yarns about Doyle’s supposed depravity and claiming there’s a conspiracy within mainstream media not to report, with zero substance to back it up, as if the world didn’t get the memo that this homophobic tale’s deader than dial-up internet.

Now, let’s highlight Slater’s incoherent hypocrisy. One minute he’s slamming the media for ignoring his Doyle hit job, whining that they’re shirking their duty. Yet when it comes to actual scandals involving actual predators, Slater’s as silent as the once vociferous but now discredited right wing propagandist, Michelle Boag. Does anybody even remember her?

Take the Tim Jago convictions and cover up for instance, the former ACT Party president and convicted pedophile, who abused teenage boys in the 1990s through his role at a sports club, was a major scandal that should have sunk David Seymours' career. The ACT Party helped the pedophile to hide and downplay his crimes. Did Slater dedicate a single blog post to exposing Jago’s pedophilia? Not a peep. And what about the Two By Twos cult, a secretive sect with a chilling number of pedophilia cases, including allegations of systemic abuse swept under the rug? National politician Hamish Campbel was caught blatantly lying about his links to the cult. But did Slater make any mention of this? No! Once again it was absolute crickets from Cam. For a self-styled crusader, his blind spots are glaringly politically biased.

This is Slater’s playbook: scream about imagined conspiracies on the left while dodging real horrors on the right that don’t fit his pathetic and childish narrative. He’ll smear a Green MP with baseless gossip but won’t touch stories that might upset his right-wing mates. It’s not just lazy…it’s spineless disinformation from a has-been blogger. The man who is cozying up to other reprobates like Winston Peters is now a complete caricature, a hypocritical fool chasing phantoms while real predators like Jago and cults like the Two By Twos completely escape his radar.

Slater’s Doyle obsession isn’t just a waste of pixels; it’s a sign of his irrelevance…irrelevance Slater amusingly accuses other bloggers of. The mainstream media and right-wing noise machine has moved on, and even his old cronies aren’t buying Slater’s homophobic rubbish! Yet here he is, alone in his echo chamber, recycling tired old tropes about a non-issue. Cam, just take the hint. New Zealand has moved on. Maybe it’s time you did too.

Cameron Slater's New Website: Same Old Defamation

You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a lesson, think again. Slater’s lurking in the digital shadows, undermining New Zealand by running another attack blog which is less about journalism and more about settling political scores.

Slater’s rap sheet reads like a cautionary tale for wannabe keyboard warriors. Back in the bad old Whale Oil days, he was slapped with three hefty defamation rulings that would make any sane person think twice. The courts weren’t buying Slater's “I’m just a blogger” shtick when he smeared innocent folks for cash. His underhanded tactics, exposed in Nicky Hagar’s excellent book Dirty Politics, tanked his reputation, and by 2019, he was bankrupt, owing creditors a small fortune. We all hoped that’d be the end of it. Nope. Enter The Good Oil, where Slater’s back to his old game: defaming people under the guise of “free speech” for money.

Despite those significant defamation rulings, Slater’s still thumbing his nose at the law, using The Good Oil to sling mud at his numerous enemies. Sources whisper he’s targeting old foes with the same reckless abandon, even though court orders have already explicitly penalised him for this type of nonsense. It’s like watching a bloke drive a car after his license got revoked for drunk driving, then act shocked when the cuffs come out. The question isn’t if he’ll get sued again…it’s when. And with his track record, the next payout could make the $700,000 previously awarded against him look like pocket change.

This month, the NZ Herald reported:

 

Winston Peters to deliver ‘roast’ as Whale Oil’s Cameron Slater celebrates 20 years of blogging

Defamation losses, awards and bankruptcy - 20 years of 'Whale Oil' blogging celebrated.
Former Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater will celebrate 20 years of blogging with a party in July - and New Zealand’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has agreed to deliver the “roast”. “When I asked Winston if he would do it, he asked me if it was an all-day event,” Slater told the Herald. The party is being held at Leo Molloy’s Headquarters bar in Auckland’s Viaduct, with tickets to attend costing $50. The fact he has given Peters a starring role appears a dramatic volte-face for Slater, who in years past was known for taunting the politician, including referring to him as “Winston Raymond Peters, 65, pensioner of St Mary’s Bay” as if he were a criminal.

…

Later - amid revelations he had taken cash to target people - the Whale Oil blog collapsed and Slater lost three defamation actions, went into personal bankruptcy and suffered a serious health event. Having recovered his health, he is now on to his third blog “Good Oil” which he bills as “News and Commentary from a Conservative Point of View”. The promotional material for the 20th anniversary party says: “Join us for a night to remember as we celebrate 20 years of blogging, breaking news and holding the powerful to account. “For two decades, Cam Slater has been at the forefront of fearless journalism: challenging narratives, exposing hypocrisy and keeping the establishment on its toes. Now, it’s time to raise a glass and mark this milestone with friends, supporters and fellow truth-seekers.” · NZ First leader Winston Peters being interviewed by Cameron Slater before the 2023 election.

Then there’s the dodgy money trail. The Good Oil runs on a subscription model, receiving cash from readers who lap up Slater’s venom. But as a bankrupt, Slater’s legally required to declare all income to the Official Assignee. Is Slater forthcoming about those subscriber dollars? Probably not, which would be a breach of the Insolvency Act. Hiding income while crying poor to creditors? That’s peak Cameron Slater. If the Assignee catches wind, he could be receiving more than just a stern letter.

What’s galling is the sheer hypocrisy of this right-wing operative. Slater’s out there preaching about the “truth” while dodging accountability for his numerous lies. The Good Oil might look like a fresh start, but it’s the same old tired playbook: defame, deflect, and dodge. New Zealand deserves better than his brand of recycled muckraking. So, here’s a tip, Cam: the courts already told you to pack it in. Keep defaming under your numerous pseudonyms and proxies, and you’ll be back in the dock before you can check your secret bank accounts.

Cameron Slater’s Creepy Fixation On Jacinda Ardern

Has anybody else noticed Cameron Slater still obsessing over Jacinda Ardern? The disgraced Whale Oil blogger seems to have made it his life’s mission to shadow the former Prime Minister of New Zealand like some unhinged stalker lurking in the digital bushes.

The man’s obsession with Ardern isn't just unhealthy...it’s downright disturbing, and it’s time we call it out for what it is: a ideologically driven vendetta that’s crossed into creepy online abuse territory. If you’ve followed Slater’s track record, you’ll know this isn’t just his political critique of current affairs; instead it’s personal, vindictive, and reeks of someone who can’t let go.

Slater’s history with Ardern reads like a bad spy novel. Back in 2021, The Standard blog exposed how he was the likely source behind a bizarre Herald attack campaign against Ardern over her wedding plans. I know right! The articles, dripping with petty resentment and innuendo, were classic Slater: digging into personal details, spinning them into a story, fabricating untruths and serving it all up with a side order of misogyny. The man couldn’t resist meddling in something as private as a wedding, allegedly feeding the story to paint Ardern as some sort of elitist. This wasn’t journalism...it was Slater skulking around Ardern's personal life, and trying to score cheap political points in a pathetic and pointless online crusade he's already lost.

But that’s just one chapter in Slater’s unhealthy Ardern fixation. His Whale Oil blog, before it imploded under the weight of his own noxious scribbling and a self-inflicted legal failure, was a cesspool of vitriol aimed at a Prime Minister who is celebrated throughout the world. Jealous much? From snide comments about her appearance to baseless insinuations about her relationships and leadership, Slater’s campaign oozed with a personal grudge that went far beyond just political disagreement.

It’s the kind of behavior you’d expect from a jilted lover, not someone who the mainstream media approach for comment. Despite their unwarranted promotion, Slater is a broken man pathetically obsessing over Ardern’s Instagram account like one of those villains in a horror movie, which would be sad if it wasn't so damn creepy! And let’s not forget his cozy ties with National MP Judith Collins, who he called a “good friend” in 2021, hinting at a shared disdain for Ardern that fueled his relentless attacks during the twilight of dirty politics.

What’s chilling is how Slater’s obsession fits his broader pattern of harassment. This is the guy who’s been involved with character assassinations, gang stand-overs, theft of private property, hacking government servers and defamation rulings. He's been fined for contempt of court, and even bankrupted, yet he still can’t stop himself. Slater’s like a digital peeping Tom, unable to resist prying into the lives of those he fixates on...Ardern, who hasn't been the PM for nearly two years now, being his main target.

Was it Slater who drove Ardern away by encouraging numerous death threats against her family? Possibly! His posts weren’t just critical; they were invasive and abusive, gleefully inciting hatred and tearing into her character with a relish that screams unhinged stalker. It’s not just about policy for Slater...it’s about Ardern herself, as if her very existence offends him.

Slater’s not just a blogger...he’s a cautionary tale of what happens when failure and resentment festers into something measurably worse. His obsession with Ardern isn’t just because he's a gun for hire or a blogger gone rogue; it’s a warning about how far unchecked malice can go. The man needs to step back, get a grip, find some help, and maybe a hobby or two that doesn’t involve stalking a successful female politician. Clearly, Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand deserves better than the toxic sideshow of Whale Oil 2.0.

Whatever Happened to Cactus Kate?

Once a venomous thorn in New Zealand’s blogosphere, Cathy Odgers, aka Cactus Kate, has slunk into the shadows, her once-sharp quills dulled by the fallout of Dirty Politics.

The dishonest attack-blogger, alongside her vile accomplices such as Cameron Slater, were key players in the National Party’s sordid smear campaigns, exposed by Nicky Hager’s 2014 bombshell book, Dirty Politics. These propagandists operated an underhanded online defamation machine that should not be forgotten. So, where’s the prickly character assassin now? Let’s have a quick look back at the heyday of right wing political muckraking.

Odgers was no mere bystander in the Dirty Politics saga. Hager’s book, built on hacked emails from Slater’s Whale Oil blog, revealed her as a gleeful orchestrator of online attacks, paid to sling mud at National’s foes. She and Slater, that odious duo, were bankrolled by the likes of Hanover Finance’s Mark Hotchin and PR sleaze Carrick Graham to undermine opponents, including Serious Fraud Office boss Adam Feeley during his probe into Hanover’s collapse.

Odgers even suggested publishing Hager’s address to incite “rich Chinese” to give him the “chop chop,” a chilling threat she later dismissed as “banter”. Banter? What a despicable piece of work Odger's, who was once the toast of the mainstream media, turned out to be.

Her most infamous act was leaking the 2011 email that sank Judith Collins’ ministerial career...temporarily, of course, because National’s Teflon queen always seems to slither back in. The email, detailing Collins “gunning” for Feeley, was Odgers’ panicked attempt to dodge Fairfax Media’s scrutiny, throwing her mate Slater under the bus in a self-inflicted wound while alerting Key’s office. Loyalty? Not in Odgers’ playbook. She’s the type who’d sell her own grandmother to save her scaly skin.

So, where’s the discredited attack columnist now? After Dirty Politics ripped the veil off her and Slater’s cash-for-smears racket, Odgers’ Cactus Kate blog went dormant, her online venom neutralized. Sources suggest she’s still skulking around Hong Kong, likely dodging accountability while perhaps looking for wealthy MFAT staff to extort?

Cameron Slater, meanwhile, whose name is complete mud, has been reduced to a bankrupt husk, his Whale Oil empire liquidated after a string of legal and online humiliations. The pair’s toxic brand is so radioactive even National MPs now steer clear, leaving them as pariahs working from the shadows in a game they once ruled.

The Dirty Politics legacy is a stain on New Zealand's politics that won’t wash out. Odgers and Slater’s antics...smearing public servants, academics, and anyone who dared cross their paymasters...showed how low the right wing will stoop to cling to power. Their posts dripped with unbridled malice in order to silence National's critics by any means, a far cry from the “free speech” they claimed to champion.

Odgers’ fall is a reminder: no amount of poisonous snark or offshore cash can shield you when the truth bites back. Good riddance, Cactus Kate...may your keyboard and you gather dust in obscurity.

Ani O’Brien has Zero Credibility

In the cesspool that is often New Zealand’s online political discourse, few figures wield their influence as destructively as Ani O’Brien. Masquerading as a champion of free speech and women’s rights, O’Brien’s campaigns are a masterclass in bad faith, built on a foundation of lies, selective outrage, and a knack for playing the victim when it suits her.

O'Brien's recent obsession with Green MP Benjamin Doyle, which utilized many of these gross manipulations, exposes not just her hypocrisy but also the dangerous consequences of her disinformation, all while she conveniently ignores right-wing politicians with actual associations with, or convictions for, paedophilia.

The misinformation expert's latest online tirade fixates on Doyle’s private Instagram account, which she’s justified the hacking of as being in the interest of safeguarding children. With zero evidence, she’s insinuated predatory behaviour of a sitting MP, stealing and amplifying screenshots of Doyle with their child to paint a sinister and entirely untrue picture. This isn’t just reckless and endangering to Doyle and his family…it’s a calculated right-wing smear campaign, leaning on dog-whistle homophobia to demonize a non-binary person for political gain.

Not content with relegating such dirty political discourse to the darker side of the internet, the mainstream media have happily amplified O’Brien’s hatred, with the NZ Herald unfortunately giving her an unearned and unwarranted platform to cry foul about the Greens’ response to her unjustified attack, framing herself as a concerned lesbian and former Green Party supporter. But let’s cut through the crocodile tears: O’Brien’s no innocent bystander. Her Substack and X posts reveal a person intent on propagating disinformation that’s been provided by anonymous trolls. She’s even admitting to peddling unverified claims, while continuing to promote a more refined level of hatred she believes will find favour amongst conservative readers. This is hateful deception dressed up as advocacy, and it’s a toxic poison that should not be infecting our democratic discourse again.

O’Brien’s victimhood act is as tired as those who echo her, such as the deluded NZ First leader Winston Peters and discredited and convicted defamer Cameron Slater. When called out, O’Brien clutches at pearls, claiming she’s targeted by “hateful left-wing homophobia.” It’s a cynical ploy to deflect accountability while rallying her hateful and abusive base of online attack trolls. She’s not the martyr she pretends to be. Instead, she’s a provocateur who thrives on outrage and controversy. Her Free Speech Union ties and history with Judith Collins’ office scream right-wing operative, not grassroots hero. Yet, she dodges scrutiny by wrapping herself in a rainbow flag she’s quick to discard when it suits her poisonous narrative.

The fallout from her Doyle campaign is chilling. X users, egged on by her insinuations, spiraled into a lynch mob, hurling death threats at Doyle and their family. Posts on platforms like r/ConservativeKiwi escalate her “evidence” into unhinged conspiracies, with users fantasizing about Doyle’s death and tossing around terms like “pedo” with abandon. One Reddit thread even speculated about “MAPs” (minor-attracted persons) hiding under rainbow flags, a vile untrue trope O’Brien’s unhinged rhetoric fuels. This isn’t just discourse…its incitement, and she’s selectively fanning the flames of hatred towards the largely left-wing supporting LGBTQ+ community without evidence or remorse.

Meanwhile, O’Brien’s silence on right-wing figures linked to actual pedophilia scandals is deafening. Take the National Party’s cozy relationship, via MP’s such as Hamish Campbell, with "church" groups like the Two By Twos who are under active FBI investigation for child abuse. Take the former Act Party president, Tim Jago, being found guilty of molesting young boys. Where’s her righteous fury there? Nowhere. Her tunnel vision on Doyle, who hasn’t committed any crime, reeks of political bias so entrenched that she couldn’t see the truth if it slapped her in the face. O’Brien isn’t safeguarding kids; she’s stealing and weaponising their images to score points against the left in a disgusting return to the bad old days of dirty politics.

Ani O’Brien’s brand of activism isn’t about truth…it’s about power. Her lies and selective crusades don’t just undermine opponents; they erode trust, inflame hate, and put lives at risk. New Zealand deserves better than Ani O’Brien’s brand of faux outrage, which inevitably undermines the claims and accounts of the real victims of child sexual abuse.

Parliament protest has dubious backers

It was concerning to see former National MP Matt King use the Parliamentary grounds “freedom” protest as a platform to launch his new political party yesterday.

Not only have many within the mainstream media been trying to legitimise the so-called anti-mandate protests, we now have another failed right wing politician siding with protestors who've been harassing school children and threatening to murder politicians.
 

Today, the NZ Herald reported:

Covid 19 Parliament anti-mandate protests: Former National MP Matt King confirms plans for new political party

King said the plans were still at the early stage, but those involved were "credible and have political experience". It also had financial support.

He would not say who those other people were, or whether they included former New Conservative leader Leighton Baker. Baker is one of those involved at the protest and seen as a leader of one of the protest groups.

"I believe there is a place in the market for a party that represents a lot of people that are not happy with what's happening at the moment," King said.

"None of the parties in the current political landscape provide a credible alternative to the status quo.

He said he had travelled to Wellington because he strongly opposed the vaccine mandates.

 

Act Party leader David Seymour has also tried to capitalise on peoples discontent by pretending to mediate for the Government. It’s a very fine line to tread. Seymour might be prepared to dance on the head of a pin to placate his white supremacist supporters, who also have links with the anti-Government protests, but thankfully he’s in a very small minority that won’t gain much traction with a majority of level headed voters in New Zealand.

Like the Maori Party, Seymour really needs to distance himself from the out-dated thinking and politicking of his political forbears.

In this regard the Prime Minister has made the right decision to keep her distance. Attempting to directly reason with protesters would only result in a spectacle, a debacle the mainstream media is clearly desperate for and has invariably been trying to instigate. It would also only harden the resolve and somewhat legitimise the protestors various causes. In fact they're unlikely to hear a word the PM says because most are currently too angry and/or deluded to be reasoned with.

Of course Trevor Mallard using a hose on protesters and playing loud music all night like a drunk neighbour wasn’t the right thing to do. This is exactly the unifying attention they needed to keep going. It confirmed their prejudices against the Government by providing an authority figure for them to hate. Mallard is clearly a part of the problem here and not the solution.

Speaking of solutions, what the Government should do is try to limit any further antagonism. They should also ensure that the protestors are provided with the basic necessities of life. Of course the Police need to ensure Wellingtonians aren't attacked and can go about their business. They should therefore be removing the most disruptive protestors when the opportunity arises. But moving protestors on with batons must not occur. Mallard also needs to be closed down to ensure he doesn’t meddle like a drunken buffoon anymore.


Today, Newshub reported:

The conditions of Speaker Trevor Mallard's cross-party offer to negotiate with protestors revealed

Parliament's Speaker Trevor Mallard has gained cross-party agreement on how to deal with the occupation of Parliament, drawing up terms on which politicians will engage.

The cross-party declaration, provided to parties on Thursday afternoon, is based on the premise that if the protestors occupying Parliament clear the streets, remove their tents and stop abusing people, politicians will talk with them.

So if the protestors go away the Government will talk with them? Honestly! If the actual Government doesn’t rein Mallard in soon, he will likely make things a lot worse. He is after all an aristocrat with anger management problems, so not exactly the best person to be engaging with derranged protestors he’s already antagonised.

Despite any immediate issues, the real solutions are of course long term. What we’re seeing here is a failure of our education systems, mental health services and misuse of social media. Firstly, the majority of those protesting clearly don’t have much ability to deduce the truth. Many also display various degrees of mental illness. Once things have deescalated the Police should contact the appropriate services for follow-up to ensure these people get the help they require.

However the main cause of these protests is disinformation. Not only have we seen the direct targeting of vulnerable Kiwis with the inappropriate use of our social media, the scope and sophistication of the misinformation campaigns clearly shows that they’re well funded.

The objective of course isn’t necessarily to end mandates or allow people more freedoms. In fact during the pandemic New Zealand has been one of the freest countries in the world. The true objective is to disrupt the Government to such a degree that they cannot achieve the social and economic change they're working towards. This would likely mean a more authoritative right wing government is elected.

It’s that fact alone and not just that many of these protestors are being obnoxious that should unify the left and everyday Kiwis, including many like myself who believe in peaceful protest, against the common enemy. Clearly the main enemy here isn’t the misguided people who’ve amassed at Parliament over the last week. Instead it's those who propagate disinformation in order to mislead the vulnerable.

Today, the Spinoff published a list of people and organisations who disseminate disinformation that has lead to the social unrest we're seeing at Parliament.

Figureheads and factions: the key people at the parliament occupation

A host of groups and views are contained in the ongoing protest in Wellington, and they don’t all get along. Who are they?

…

At one end of the spectrum of participants and supporters – both on-site and in the online groups that make up their circuitry and inspiration – are many who plausibly insist they are simply anti-mandate, and decry the impacts of the vaccination requirements on themselves and their families. It continues through swathes of people promoting anti-vaccine and “natural healing” balderdash, and to those who menace members of the public for wearing masks, and on it goes through to the most poisonous far-right extremists. A better word than spectrum, perhaps, is continuum, a chain of hands leading from decent people to would-be lynchers. The greatest worry for us all is participants moving the wrong way along that chain – the sight of a fertile recruitment ground for the ugliest, most hateful and dangerous people among us. It is not yet three years, after all, since a terrorist attack in Christchurch shook us from a complacent slumber.

What the numerous groups listed in Toby Manhire’s excellent article fail to comprehend is that New Zealand simply wouldn’t accept the overthrow of the Labour Government in this way. Disinformation campaigns might work to encourage the deluded, but using unjustified causes to try and get the people to storm Parliament en masse and install a regime of ragtag idiots simply won’t work. In fact it will likely illicit sympathy for Jacinda Ardern, who's been the main target for what is obviously misguided anger.

In my opinion, when you have people like Cameron Slater directly encouraging discontent and insurrection against the Government, you know that these protestors are on the wrong side of history. Clearly the spectacle of this propagandist blathering rubbish should be all they need to leave their encampment, which is likely to occur one way or the other in the not too distant future.

The end of a toxic leader

If there's one thing that Judith Collins is usually good at, it's using scandalous information about other people to her advantage. Not above undermining her own political party, Collins has been known to even leak against her fellow MPs, particularly those who posed a threat to her as the leader of the beleaguered National Party.

That’s what makes her downfall so extraordinary. By attempting to sanction Simon Bridges using a complaint about inappropriate behavior from five years ago, Collins has appeared the political novice, and not the cutthroat operator that we’ve all come to know and despise.


Today, Stuff reported:

Live: Judith Collins rolled as National leader

Judith Collins is out as National's leader after her demotion of Simon Bridges threw the party into disarray, Stuff understands.

Bridges was to be demoted and stripped of his portfolios in response to a complaint about comments he allegedly made to a female colleague a number of years ago, it was announced on Wednesday night.

The complainant is understood to be MP Jacqui Dean.

You’ve got to question Collins’ faculties here. Firstly, she has failed to accept that she's the main cause of National’s polling slide. Evidently a majority of voters don’t support the vexatious nature of Collins and her chief advisor Cameron Slater and any attempt to paint them in a different light was obviously a folly only the most deluded right-wing propagandist would believe in.

But by attempting to use a dirty tactic to fend off a leadership challenge, even if there is merit to the initial complaint, Collins appeared incredibly arrogant, even by her standards. Collins even claimed that she had the support of the board to demote Bridges, a bold faced lie that also sealed her fate. In effect there was no other option left to her colleagues other than to end her short tenure as the so-called leader of the National Party.

Collins issued her press statement at 9.24pm, including claiming she was unanimously backed by the @NZNationalParty board.
Only after she was rolled did the President correct the record, around 18 hours later.
Had Collins prevailed, Goodfellow would have gone along with the lie.

— Matthew Hooton (@MatthewHootonNZ) November 25, 2021

In fact the blue “team” has been nothing more than a shambles since Collins and her forlorn entourage obtained the opposition benches last year, particularly during the Delta outbreak whereby they still appear conflicted about the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.

However it’s the desperate attempt to hold onto her unwarranted power that has ultimately resulted in Crusher's downfall. Besmirching Simon Bridges with an old complaint is one thing, but trying to convince a predominantly male dominated caucus that she wouldn’t use similar underhanded tactics against them is quite another.

Clearly this total failure to read the room is a huge misstep showing that Judith Collins has no place leading a political party, or a place in Parliament for that matter. In my opinion she should do the right thing and resign entirely before the next election.

Collins supports anti-vax protest

If you’ve kept an eye on the news recently, you've likely noticed the anti-vax, anti-lockdown and anti-Ardern protests occurring in New Zealand, a protest movement that has been gaining some momentum as the Covid-19 disinformation campaign ramps up and restrictions start to bite

But what you may not have noticed is that the current leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, yesterday came out in support of these illegal protests in what can only be described as another misstep that should ensure her political career is effectively over.

Not only did the current opposition leader travel to Auckland in solidarity with these deluded anti-vaccination crusaders, she also openly acknowledged the reason they were on the streets in a tweet that should only be considered as implicit support for their causes.

There’s a lot of frustration and anger in Auckland. From double vaccinated people who see no end in sight with 11 weeks of lockdown & a PM who would prefer Europe to Auckland.

— Judith Collins (@JudithCollinsMP) October 30, 2021

While most law-abiding citizens can understand why there are restrictions, namely to try and save lives by stopping the spread of the deadly Delta virus, Judith Collins and the National Party are actively undermining the good work lock-downs have thus far achieved.

In fact by siding with these anti-vax protesters who were chanting inane slogans such as ‘freedom’ and ‘Jacinda out’, Collins is putting her terribly partisan approach to politics ahead of the safety of the country.

However it’s little wonder Crusher has given her approval to these anti-vaccination and anti-government protesters, being that the main organiser is none other than Bishop Brian Tamaki.

Not content with again breaching his bail conditions, Tamaki and his wife Hannah have been actively organising anti-government protests and promoting online conspiracy theories to try and ensure the sacrifice the rest of the country has made is wasted.

Clearly a consequence of these protests will be an increase in Covid-19 case numbers, which is a sad indictment on just how selfish these people (including Groundswell organiser Scott Bright) actually are. But what is even worse is that the increase in case numbers will assuredly also be used by these idiots to once again try to undermine the government's Covid-19 health response.

But Brian and Hannah Tamaki aren’t the only ones the self-centered Collins is associated with who’ve got a vested interest in undermining New Zealand's substantial efforts to control the Delta outbreak.

Collins is also in regular contact with propagandists and dirty politics practitioner, Cameron Slater. This right-wing attack blogger, who lost his previous slanderous website through court action, has been running an extensive Covid-19 disinformation campaign against the government; a campaign that is undoubtedly endangering peoples lives.

In fact Slater, who is an ardent anti-vaxxer and Covid-19 conspiracy theorist, doesn’t even believe that the Covid-19 virus is deadly, even though it’s now killed more than five million people worldwide.

The problem for Collins and her minions, and ultimately the floundering National Party, is that most Kiwis agree that the Government’s Covid-19 restrictions are worthwhile. Kiwis in general support the way Jacinda Ardern has handled herself as the Prime Minister of New Zealand during the pandemic. In the face of considerable adversity, Ardern’s leadership has assuredly saved lives, which is a lot more than can be said for Judith Collins and the unhinged protesters she evidently supports.