NEW PINNED TWEET:
To settle speculation about my politics...
I’ve given votes to Greens, Labour, National & ACT (gen & elec) over the years. I worked in the Leader of the Opposition's office in 2021.
I party voted Green and electorate voted Labour in 2017. Within a year I was full of regret.
The Governments of 2017-2023 were so bad on so many levels that despite any misgivings I have about some of the new Government's policies, I am relieved that they are there.
I always allow a new Government a grace period to settle in before I start being super hard on them, but I seem to always end up in 'opposition' eventually. I was very critical of Key/English's Governments and Ardern/Hipkins'.
I am a classic swing voter, I guess. I like bits of centre-left policy and bits of centre-right. I’m perhaps centrist? Definitely contrarian.
I loathe extremists on both ends of politics and they loathe me right back. In my experience society today has much more tolerance for left wing extremists and so their craziness impacts us all more.
I hate postmodernism.
I hate identity politics.
I have been called all sorts of variations of 'Uncle Tom' because I am a lesbian who opposes gender ideology and the impact trans activism has on women's rights, children's rights, and society at large.
I am a women's rights activist who understands that for a cohesive society the two sexes have to find ways to work together. First step is to deal with male violence against women and themselves.
Mental health/illness is something I care a great deal about. We aren't managing this crisis well in our health system nor in how we raise our kids. I am not ashamed to share that I have Bipolar 1 Disorder and have extensive experience in the mental health system. I am open about it and try to combat stigma, but I do get nervous about how it will be used against me.
I am on the Council of the Free Speech Union & because people just don't seem to get it, that means I will defend your right to speech even if I disagree with you. However, I may criticise your speech. I might say it is offensive or rude or inappropriate. Criticism is not suppression. Also me blocking people on X is not a violation of their free speech. They can keep talking nonsense, I just don't have to listen to it.
I am passionate about reforming New Zealand's justice system. In particular, reforming sentencing laws and finding ways to place constraints on an activist judiciary without totally destroying the separation of powers. I also want to reform name suppression laws to make it virtually impossible for criminals to get name suppression unless it protects the victims.
Prison abolitionists are simply anarchists and should be taken as seriously as flat-earthers.
I am a pretty open book so feel free to ask questions - just don't be a dick.

James O’Brien has expressed more empathy for Mrs Macron being called a transwoman by Candace Owens than he has about Charlie Kirk’s death. Now, I think Owens is grifting nutbar but after years of trans celebration from James O’Brien it is surprising he sees it as such an insult.

If you are outside Winston's house or any politician's house you need to have a stern word to yourself. Go sit outside their offices or Parliament or their ministry. Leave their family out of it. Politicians are accessible in NZ but if it becomes too dangerous that'll end.

I suspect that the two most threatened MPs in Parliament are two Māori men; David Seymour and Winston Peters.
Somehow threats against them aren't taken as seriously as they are when it is others in the spotlight.
The media certainly seems far less concerned.

How fucking boring. Another spoilt middle class woman desperate to be relevant.

"The union’s president, Chris Abercrombie, said Palestine was only one of a number of topics the union wished to discuss with the minister, and that its placement at the top of their list did not signify it was the top priority"
https://t.co/Hqq22o4WjG

Oops! Did Labour swipe a NZ First policy?
"Peters announced the NZ First policy of a $100b future fund at the party's AGM last Oct...the fund would be based on similar approaches in Singapore & Ireland, & suggested work was already underway."
https://t.co/E0iF0enn6v

You heard it here first, guys. New Zealand parks carry scars from colonisation.
https://t.co/v8hTIBlBk8

Chloe Swarbrick v David Seymour. Comment about doxxing is fair.

https://t.co/0At3xx4H7n
Te Anihana Pomana last seen leaving SkyCity hotel on Aug 21 & “Police have committed significant resources to this investigation; however, have not been able to identify any positive lines of enquiry". She withdrew cash & left belongings in hotel room.

READ: Part 1 aniobrien.substack.com/p/rot-corrupt-…
The Independent Police Conduct Authority’s bombshell report into the Jevon McSkimming saga has torn the mask off a police culture that protects its own, punishes the vulnerable, and quietly strangles accountability.

It is unlikely that Hipkins saw anything wrong with McSkimming having an affair with a much more junior staff member given he as an MP had an affair with his intern (with whom he has now years later reunited and is marrying).
He lied about knowing about McSkimming just as he lied about having never had a relationship with a staff member.

https://t.co/d6sYMiiCAY
To be clear (coz Stuff is trying to lump together) Coster is alleging that Mitchell knew slightly earlier in 2024 than the November date he has referred to. Hipkins on the other hand has straight up lied that he didn’t know but was made aware in 2022

Congratulations on your new role as President of the Law Commission @JudithCollinsMP & thank you for your service to New Zealand. It was a privilege to work for such a courageous, principled woman & I learned a lot in my year with you.
Often I read things online or in the media about Judith & think "wow you people do not know her at all". She is a tough gal and "Crusher" suits her, but she is also caring, wise, and super smart.
What an immense loss to the National Party and Parliament.

Chloe Swarbrick must live a very privileged life if she thinks the presence of slugs in one's bathroom is evidence of hardship. We frequently get slugs in ours because we leave the window open and there are slugs in our garden. When we see them.... we simply relocate them! We also get flies, wetas, and the occasional skink. Though the cats bring those in. We live in a rented humble home in a decent suburb with flatmates to save money.
What planet does she live on?

I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again, Trump is the West’s greatest hope for survival & in turn the world’s greatest hope for prosperity & peace. Not because he is a messiah or faultless. He is an egomaniac. But that is what enables him to do what needs to be done. He is fearless. He has the balls & the spine. He is the classic example of the vital function of psychopathy in leadership. It means he is running a tightrope & takes big gambles. Shit can always go wrong. But the west was dying, terrorist regimes gaining traction. Decades of either pussyfooting around or dumb wars have sped up the decline. The world needs a shake up. The status quo was managed decline. His bombasticness is scary & I understand why people react viscerally. But I maintain that we needed a fucking renegade, a wild card. And I hope & pray he is successful because it means liberation for oppressed populations, prosperity for those starved under communism, and it means the flourishing of western values.
I had Trump Derangement Syndrome in 2016. I understand it. Now I accept that there are things I don’t like about him while realising he is exactly what we need.

Three years ago today, there was no war raging in Gaza. There was a ceasefire.

Then, in the early hours of 7 Oct, Hamas launched a coordinated invasion of Israel. Thousands of armed men crossed the border & they deliberately went looking for civilians.

They went into homes & murdered families. They killed children & elderly. They abducted men, women & children & dragged them back into Gaza as hostages where civilians cheered.

And they attacked the Nova music festival. Hundreds of young people were dancing in the desert when terrorists descended on them. It is grimly familiar to see Islamist terrorists choosing a place of music, dancing, & freedom as a killing ground. Manchester. The Bataclan. Nova.

There are photographs & videos of what happened that day because, extraordinarily, many of the perpetrators filmed it themselves.

There is a plethora of evidence of sexual violence. There is the intercepted call in which a Hamas attacker excitedly told his parents that he had killed 10 Jews “with my own hands”. They raped & burned bodies, hunted people through fields & into bomb shelters, & paraded terrified hostages through Gaza.

It was an atrocity.

And something happened in the West almost immediately afterwards that I still struggle to comprehend.

Before Israel had even buried its dead, people thousands of kilometres away began finding reasons why the victims had it coming.

Within days, the murderer and the murdered had begun swapping places in the popular imagination.

Three years later, antisemitism has returned with a fervour to Western society with a speed and confidence that should terrify us.

Ancient conspiracies about Jewish power & blood libels have been repackaged in the vocabulary of “decolonisation”. Jewish people around the world have been expected to account for the actions of a foreign government. People have celebrated or rationalised terrorism as “resistance”. Influencers who could not have found Gaza on a map 4 years ago have turned Palestine into an entire political identity.

And an extraordinary amount of propaganda has been swallowed without the slightest curiosity about the people producing it.

So, since the word itself is now treated as an obscenity I will admit that I am a Zionist.

Zionism, at its most basic, is the belief that the Jewish people have a right to national self-determination in their historic homeland & that Israel has a right to continue to exist as a Jewish state.

That does not mean believing the Israeli government is always right. It does not mean supporting every military action, every politician, or every policy. It does not mean believing Palestinian civilians have no rights or that their suffering does not matter.

It means I believe Israel should exist. Shouldnt be eradicated.

If Israel’s objective were simply to obliterate Gaza without regard for civilian life, it possesses the firepower to inflict destruction on a vastly greater scale. But they don’t.

Hamas, meanwhile, has repeatedly made clear that it regards the destruction of Israel (not peaceful coexistence with it). They have turned down peace deals & 2 state solutions.

You can grieve for innocent Palestinians. I do. And you can criticise Israel. I do.

You can also believe that every innocent life lost in this war is a tragedy.

But I will not pretend that Hamas is a liberation movement. I will not romanticise men who deliberately massacred & raped civilians. I will not accept that murdering Jews is morally complicated because the murderers have run a highly successful propaganda campaign.

And I will not participate in the extraordinary collective amnesia about how this war began.

On 7 Oct 2023, people were dancing. Then Hamas came across the border to kill them.

I remember them today.