Free To Speak

Free Speech Union spokesperson Jonathan Ayling speaks to ACT MP Dr. James McDowall about the voting down - at first reading - of his "Education (Freedom of Expression) Amendment Bill". The Bill was designed to ensure there were consequences for universities that actively inhibited free of expression without legitimate cause. But the government didn't even want to debate the issue. W...

In this week's episode of the podcast Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore speaks to Nina Power - an English social critic, philosopher, and author of the new book “What Do Men Want”.  Nina was previously a senior lecturer in Philosophy at Roehampton University in Britain. She writes for Telegraph, Art Review, and The Spectator and is now editing a new publication Compact Magazine. Nina t...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud speaks with former NZ Green Party chief of staff and Wellington Mayoral candidate in 2022 Tory Whanau. Tory discusses her fascinating (and enviable!) journey that led her to a dream job in communications and eventually to the role of chief of staff with the Green Party. Tory offers insight into how the Greens and wider contemporary Left view hate speech l...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud speaks to former Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox about the Māori presence at the recent parliamentary protests. Marama (who would be briefly trespassed by Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard) spent a number of days on the ground and offers a detailed account of the Māori presence at the protest - who they were, why they were there - and what turned an in...

Michelle Uriarau is a founding member of Mana Wāhine Kōrero - an advocacy group of and for Māori women who took strong positions against the 'Self ID' and 'Conversion Practises Bills. One of the roadblocks to getting their message out there has been the misrepresentation of Tikanga Māori (Māori Culture) which activists have used to justify gender non-conformity - despite there being...

Get ready for some hardcore history as Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore talks to political commentator par excellence Chris Trotter about the conditions that gave rise to Nazism. Despite Hitler taking power after being banned from public speaking - and the Nazi party itself being outlawed for two years - many today see censorship as vital in the fight against the Far-Right. But are they ig...

Join us for the audio version of Karl du Fresne's brilliant lecture 'Threats to Free Speech' including the full Q & A, which was held at Victoria University on  Thursday 28th April https://www.fsu.nz/mallard_must_go Support the show https://www.fsu.nz/ https://x.com/NZFreeSpeech https://www.instagram.com/freespeechnz/ https://www.tiktok.com/@freespeechunionnz

Dane Giraud and fellow Free Speech Union steering group member Ani O'Brien continue a discussion on the fallout from the cancelation of a Free Speech Union talk at AUT, focusing on the role an "Inclusion Manager' may have played in the cancelation. Common on many campuses now, these rather ironically named managers seem far more interested in excluding speakers, than welcoming a &ap...

The Free Speech Union has had a speaking event canceled by AUT. In the first public talk in what was to kick off a nationwide lecture series, Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore was to talk about (ironically) her experiences with women's rights group 'Speak Up For Women' and being canceled by a sequence of regional councils. The reason given was we weren't following proper...

Don Franks has been involved in Left-wing activism since the 1960s (starting with his opposition to the Vietnam War) and is a published author and professional musician. He was a resident at the Jerusalem commune of James K. Baxter and was involved in union activity at a major car plant. In this episode, Don talks to Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud about the centrality of Free Speech to...

A worrying trend of rejecting political adverts brought the attention of the Free Speech Union to the decision-making process of NZME. Having discovered that a large percentage of shareholders back this bedrock democratic principle we sought to support them at the annual AGM where free speech was made an agenda item. But the board had a strategy to get around this and in this 'Special Report&...

This week on our Life Out Loud (LOL) summary of a week in Free Speech in New Zealand (inspired by our newsletter), Free Speech Union spokespersons Jonathan Ayling and Ani O'Brien touch on two recent hit-jobs mounted against the Free Speech Union.  In NBR a piece was written by a writer (who really should've known better) that spun off into such fantasy about the Union that J.R.R Tolkien...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Jonathan Ayling speaks to friend of the Free Speech Union - National MP for Tamaki - Simon O'Conner. In a packed, thoughtful, and thought-provoking discussion, Simon discusses the government's mind-blowing decision to block a briefing from Police Commissioner Andrew Coster on the parliamentary protest, what is really behind the current cries of 'misinf...

In this 'Special Report' Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore talks to previous podcast guest Rachel Stewart about cancel culture and self-censorship following her removal from a documentary on the New Zealand dairy industry over her views on a number of completely unrelated topics.  Rachel is a staunch defender of free speech. She was a columnist for the Herald and in 2016 won the C...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud speaks to comic actor and writer Peter Rowley about working with a man who is still universally considered New Zealand's best comedian - the late Billy T James. Peter would often play the 'straight man' to Billy's gallery of cheeky characters but wrote much of the material with Billy too. So just how troublesome were the censors to Bil...

The Kashmir Files is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language drama film based on the exodus of Hindu people during the Kashmir Insurgency in 1990. It has been released in other countries with varying age restrictions. The film was awarded a rating in New Zealand and was set for release until representatives from the FIANZ (Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ) intervened claiming that negative representa...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Jonathan Ayling sits down with National MP for Pakuranga Simeon Brown to discuss Simeon's voting record on a range of controversial Bills (Safe Areas Bill/ Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill). Simeon is candid about the personal cost of taking principled stands in this polarized age and the threat of political polarization more generally and Jonathan and Sime...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud discusses the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr with Dr. Melissa Derby, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Waikato, Tauranga, and good friend of the Free Speech Union. Dr. Derby's admiration for the Rev. King extends back to her childhood, and in 2019, while studying in the USA, Dr. Derby was able to follow the c...

In this week's episode of our LOL (Life Out Loud) podcast summary of the Free Speech Union newsletter, spokespeople Jonathan Ayling, Dane Giraud, and Ani O'Brien dig deep into the shocking end to the anti-mandate protests. Also, Netsafe confirms they are no friend of Free Speech, 'Plain Speech' Officers look set to make Orwell's fiction a reality, and the call for a ban on...

The Free Speech Union's Jonathan Ayling sat down with National Party Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith, ACT part Justice spokesperson Nicole McKee, and Labour MP and Chair of the Justice Committee Ginny Anderson to discuss the now passed Conversion Practices Prohibition Bill. While Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi has given assurances the new law won't impinge on religious freedoms and...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Jonathan Ayling sits down with the ACT Party's Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden and the National Party's MP for Invercargill Penny Simmonds - both members of the Parliamentary Health Select Committee - to discuss the highly controversial 'Safe Areas' Bill. With protest rights front of mind for many Kiwis right now, the pair discuss their mutual con...

Free Speech spokesperson Jonathan Ayling is joined by steering group members Ani O'Brien and Rachel Poulain to discuss our newsletter and pull apart the major stories currently keeping the team at the Free Speech Union busy. On the agenda: A big thank you to Free Speech Union supporters for your overwhelming support of our Netsafe submission, yet more Codes of Conduct concerns, a new petition...

Former National MP Matt King dropped into the Free Speech Union studios between visits to the Parliament Protest for a far-ranging chat with spokesperson, and friend Ani O'Brien. A staunch opponent of mandates from the very outset, King talks about the mainstream media's wilful misrepresentation of protesters, the role controversial Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard played in inflaming...

Free Speech Union spokespeople Jonathan Ayling, Ani O'Brien, and Dane Giraud examine the (at the time of this recording) ongoing anti-mandate protest or "occupation" of the lawns before Parliament. Ani did one better than any MP we have by engaging with the protesters and reports back to the team kicking off a spirited discussion on the precarious position of protest in New Zealand...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Ani O'Brien may be on the other side of the argument from Pro-Life campaigner Kate Cormack (President of "Voice For Life") but Free Speech and holding on to our Right to peacefully protest is where they find plenty of common ground. In this week's episode, Kate discusses the impact of the proposed 'Safe Areas' Bill (which is about to hav...