NZ Minister Criticises Alleged Police Visit Over Controversial Facebook Post

New Zealand’s Police Minister Mark Mitchell has expressed his disapproval of officers’ actions after an Auckland woman was allegedly visited by police over a controversial Facebook post, saying the country does not have hate speech laws.

Renee-Rose Schwenke reportedly found police officers on her doorstep after posting a selfie that appears to have been taken in a cafe or pub, with two men of Indian appearance in the background.

The photo is captioned “Welcome to New India, thanks to Luxsingh,” in a reference to Prime Minister Chris Luxon and the new Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement, which critics claim will lead to a substantial increase in Indian immigration.

Following media reports about the incident, Mitchell said he had asked the police to explain their actions.

“I accept the inquiry was made in good faith and was well-intentioned. But it did not meet the police’s own threshold for further inquiry and should not have been forwarded to them for follow-up,” he said.

“Police acknowledge this and are clear that people have every right to exercise their freedom of speech. We do not have hate speech laws, and New Zealanders don’t want to live in a country where speech is policed.”

While the minister acknowledged that overt racism has no place in New Zealand society and that people should be held accountable for their actions, Mitchell said he expected “the police continue to enforce the law where that threshold is met.”

Winston Peters, leader of the nationalist party New Zealand First and the country’s foreign minister, said that if the incident were true, it would amount to “‘1984’ thought-police-level overreach.”

“It should seriously frighten every New Zealander who believes in freedom of speech,” he said.

“This is not about whether this particular post was offensive or not. There will always be personal responsibility and consequences for people voicing their opinions that are viewed by some as tasteless or gormless or offensive—but those consequences should not be by way of a police visit.

“No one has the right to not be offended, nor do they have the right to be protected from having hurt feelings. In fact it is precisely the right to be able to offend which is the foundation of freedom of speech in our country … If we start to accept this kind of overreach by police to curtail individual freedom of speech, our democracy will fall into the type of totalitarian oblivion that will destroy our country.”

Meanwhile, ACT Justice spokesman Todd Stephenson said the post was “mean-spirited,” but that didn’t mean police should get in touch over it.

“Being offensive is not a crime, and it should not be a police matter,” he said.

“New Zealanders do not want to see us go down the path of the UK, where police are knocking on doors and arresting people over social media posts that hurt someone’s feelings. Police resources are stretched enough dealing with actual crime without acting as the tone police for Facebook.”