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Media, politics, citizenship

Media, politics and citizenship.  

Counter Protesting: Julian Batchelor

This social media post created by Tamaki Anti-Fascist action shows a call for a counter-protest to Julian Batchelor’s ‘Anti co-governance' tour. I believe that the message in the social media post is the correct response to Batchelor’s actions and beliefs, here’s why.  

Anti – co-governance is a large issue in today's media and political sphere. Since the creation of the Three Waters Act, disinformation has led to a large and misinformed political movement. Historically anti-Māori and anti-treaty actors have reemerged as the leaders of this new movement with Julian Batchelor being at the forefront. Through uninformed rhetoric pushed by Aotearoa’s big right-wing parties (National, Act and New Zealand First) and the accompanying media outlets (Newstalk ZB and The Platform etc.) the public reaction has been skewed. Adding to the conspiratorial confusion in the wake of the COVID response, a movement of right-wing paranoia has emerged. Julian Batchelor organised a tour of the nation, travelling to all lengths of the country to spread his message. This message is calling for intervention in mild treaty support policies that he believes will turn New Zealand into an ‘apartheid, tribal rule state’.  

Julian Batchelor is a Kenyan born, New Zealand evangelist who has made a living from church donations and his large property portfolio amassed largely during his time as a real-estate agent. Batchelor, a born-again Christian, developed his theological model on the idea that humans either have a light or dark soul and are battling for power. His theological theories relate highly to his political platform based around anti co-governance. Batchelor has been campaigning on the idea that having Māori representation in the form of co-governance equates to apartheid that was seen in South Africa.  

Despite the tour's occasionally substantial support, the opposition to the tour has brought left-wing, anti-fascist and revolutionary socialist organisations together with the public masses to organise counter-protests. The social media post we are analysing comes from the recent counter-protest organised in coalition between ‘Tamaki Anti-Fascist Action (TAFA)’ and ‘Organise Aotearoa (OA)’. To round-up his tour, Batchelor decided to march up Queen St in Tamaki Makaurau where many organisations on the right joined up under his banner. Amongst these groups was NZ neo-Nazi's ‘Action Zealandia’ and Brian Tamaki’s ‘Freedoms coalition’.  

The social media post here was created by TAFA to organise and share the message that they were going to counter protest. This is an example of DIY citizenship as they are trying to create a grassroots event in reaction to an opposing political movement. On the day, counter-protesters from Auckland gathered in a noise protest designed to disrupt and drown out Batchelor’s speeches. At the front line of Batchelor’s protest were five Action Zealandia members shouting racial abuse at the more diverse group of counter-protesters including, “go home savages, go home”, as a part of their chant. After a couple of hours, they moved on and the counter-protesters were stopped by police from advancing further.  

This social media post aligns with my beliefs as I was there as a member of one of the organisations. I believe that DIY citizenship is important to create an opposition to racist movements and disseminate the disinformation that they share. In this example, we managed to get a small interview with newshub in which it was pointed out that there were neo-Nazis amongst their protest which shows where they truly stand. It was important to get some kind of media to cover the issue as without it you are only left with a public reaction which may be interpreted any way without context. On the opposing side they had their own internal media in the form of mana news. I reviewed the footage taken by mana news during the protest and it was evident that they had no idea what we represented or that they had Nazi’s on their front line. 

As an extension of grassroots movements, media is an important addition to DIY citizenship. The form of media taken to provide information about a movement against Batchelor’s anti co-governance tour is social media. Accessible to most people, grassroots movements have begun to rely on social media’s reach and accessibility to create effective movements. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook (events), Telegram and Discord are now key platforms for organising DIY citizenship events and movements. Although traditional media often takes interest at the peak of conflict through DIY movements, they often come in late, use little context and provide a bad take on what is happening and has been happening on the ground. Despite the positivity of getting to talk to mainstream media which sometimes does not happen, Newshub reduced the event to a ‘major shouting match’ without giving much time to explain the conflict or write a meaningful analysis. Without these more diverse forms of media, DIY citizenship would be far more challenging to practice. 

In conclusion, I believe that the social media post and action taken were a correct response to the issue we were facing. Anti co-governance is fundamentally a continuation of settler colonialism and racist policy that will only benefit wealthy settlers under the current capitalist system (like Julian Batchelor). In times where DIY citizenship is needed and required to hit the streets, social media can be very effective in assuring that people are informed and prepared to take part.  

Ariel Bogle. Far-right voice opponents Co-opt comments from controversial New Zealand speaker. (2023, August 22). the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/23/who-is-julian-batchellor-stop-co-governance-new-zealand-far-right-speaker-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-referendum-no-campaign 

Julian Batchelor. (2023, October 25). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 27, 2023, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Batchelor  

Jessica (no last name given). Where the parties stand on Co-governance. (9/9/2023). Democracy Action. https://www.democracyaction.org.nz/where_the_parties_stand_on_co_governance  

Perry Wilton. (23/9/2023). Newshub, https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/09/major-shouting-match-in-auckland-as-stop-co-governance-movement-clashes-with-counter-protesters.html 

Blog 2

This article published by New Zealand doctor describes the sacrifices that the National party will make to public services, in particular healthcare, in order to fund their tax cut policy. I believe that the argument made in this article is correct and here’s why.

The article published September 13, 2023, describes the worries held by healthcare professionals after an interview Christopher Luxon did with the morning report. The article follows the response from the Public Service Association in reaction to Luxon’s comments. What they are saying is that National’s fiscal policy looks to defund or refuse to increase funding of backstaff healthcare work as they do not see it as being important in comparison to frontline health work. The PSA argues that without funding for all of the other parts of healthcare, frontline workers will not have the necessary funds to do their job correctly or efficiently. They continue to say, “Mr Luxon is either ignorant of how health services are delivered, or he is deliberately misleading New Zealanders”. Added on to this, National’s healthcare policy shows that they still want to increase vaccination rates which is contradictory to their policy of defunding the public sector. 

National’s tax cut policy, as with dozens they’ve had before this election, always looks good on the outside. In reality, the National party needs to find $8 billion in order to fund the policy. Until as recently as the opening of voting, Luxon refused to answer (among other things) where they would get the money from. After some time of deflecting the question they finally said what everyone had expected, that the money would come from defunding the public sector. As a right-wing party, it is always going to be in the corporate interest to privitise public services in favour of private corporations and contractors so that they can make essential industries profitable. The obvious downside to this is that the only people who ever benefit are the extremely wealthy business owning class. Luxon’s career as a CEO in major international corporations only shows his further commitment to helping exclusively his rich friends, donors and those of the same class. Healthcare workers for as long as neoliberalism has existed have been the first to bare the brunt of neoliberal privitisation and destruction of the public sector. With Labour, few to no concessions were made in regards to helping healthcare workers, however, National’s plan will explicitly hurt their funding more. 

The article does a good job of showing healthcare professionals reaction to the issue. Many other workers in public industry are currently feeling the same about the immenent drop in quality of their working conditions and pay. As well as healthcare, National plans to cut public transport (including the Auckland light rail project) in favour of building roads, bring back prescription fees, destroy Fair Pay Agreements, bring back no-cause evictions, get rid of the maori health authority, clean car discount, funding for education and welfare. In contradistinction to their claim that they are ‘working for all New Zealanders’, National’s tax cut plan is specifically designed to get rid of any union power, concessions to the working class and accessible public services. 

This article shows the importance of having forms of industry related media. NZ Doctor focuses on industry related stories and information, providing good journalism written by people in the industry or who have worked in the industry. Mainstream media generally fails to capture industry perspectives on issues until union struggle or public outcry becomes vocal on an industry problem. In this particular case, National party is breaking the healthcare workers political citizenship by banning free pay agreements which remain one of the only measures that healthcare workers have been able to use to gain industry concessions. Free pay agreements were one of the surviving union and industry tools since unions were stripped of their power through neoliberalism. Essentially what they allow is industry wide union strikes and industry wide policies rather than making a union struggle that only caters for a single business. With National party’s imminent FPA ban coming, the strikes by healthcare workers, teacher etc. will be forced to stop on a legal basis. This ban gives much more power to corporations who strive to make profit at all costs over the welfare of their workers. The less a corporation has to pay to it’s workers and facilities in order to run, the more profit they will make - and that is exactly what National party and their capitalist donors want. 

This article aligns with my beliefs as I stand by workers in all industries and believe that corporations and capitalist politicians should not be in power of a functioning democracy. The history of the destruction of Unions and public sector industries is a travesty for the working class in NZ and world-wide. I believe it is important for industries to not only have strong unions, but also have their own media like the healthcare industry does. Ultimately I, as do the Public Service Association, think that the cutting of public sector funding as well as their ability to fight for conditions works only in the interest of the ruling minority of our country and against the interest of the working majority.

In conclusion, I agree with the sentiment of this article. They have done a good job of portraying the injustices done upon their rights as an industry and as citizens by National Party policies. It is important to have media that is industry focused and believes in doing the right thing for the public and for their workers. 

Media Release from the Public Service Association. (2023, September 13). Watch out New Zealand, cuts to health spending coming under a national-led government. New Zealand Doctor. https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/article/undoctored/watch-out-new-zealand-cuts-health-spending-coming-under-national-led-government 

Michael Neilson. National's focus on benefit sanctions goes against evidence - expert. (2023, September 26). NZ Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/election-2023-national-party-sanctions-benefit-policy-goes-against-evidence-expert-weag-says/DS552SZZURFCZK3IXKWK4MYZLY/