But Groundswell ARE full of racists and antiVaxxers!

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
142
4781

ACT demands apology from Stuart Nash for suggesting Groundswell full of racists, anti-vaxxers

The ACT Party has demanded an apology from Stuart Nash after he suggested Groundswell was full of racists and anti-vaxxers. 

Mark Cameron, ACT’s spokesperson for primary industries, has accused Labour of showing their “true colours” when he questioned whether the Government had met with Groundswell.

Labour MP Stuart Nash – who was answering questions on behalf of Damien O’Connor – questioned the farming advocacy group’s beliefs after they made headlines for racist comments made by one of their members.  

“I’m not too sure what Groundswell stands for these days and that is what I have read on their website,” Nash said at question time in Parliament on Thursday. “It’s a mixture of racism, anti-vax etc.”

In a statement, Cameron said Nash had shown “utter contempt” towards rural New Zealand and called on the Prime Minister to force him to apologise to the farming advocacy group.

But Groundswell are full of racists and antiVaxxers – so Labour’s ‘true colours’ are telling the truth?

I’m not sure that’s the burn ACT thinks it is?

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This is Tatua Dairy board member Ross Townshend. He is a proud Groundswell supporter, here is the racist shit he posted…

…he had to resign for that!

How ridiculous is it for ACT to pull on their easily triggered trousers and run around screaming for safe spaces for the crazily offended?

Who knew that beneath the surface they are as cowardly and weak as the woke!

These banjo twanging Groundswell rednecks who are outraged that their century long pillage of water and natural resources is over is the sad howl of a sector finally being held to account.

While we love our friendly farmers who provide for us, the corporate farmers who wreck our environment so they can exploit it and sell food to 50million others can go fuck themselves.

ACTs faux outrage and offense at rednecks  being called out is so Wellington woke petty!

 

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142 COMMENTS

    • A few bad apples? I don’t think so. Tatua is a significant Dairy product producer, if people like Ross Townsend are acceptable as Board members then there is an industry problem. Ex Northland MP Matt King posts climate change denying, and Māori bashing crap just like him, as do other Nat and ACT figures across the land if you can stand to read the posts retched up on their social media. These people (aka dirty filthy tories) are often in governance and leadership positions, including local Govt. and Regional Councils. The thing is to call them out always.

      • X-ray. Have you seen Ross himself though ? He’s not exactly a charmer: thin upper lip, and hooded eyes, I thought, like a gangster in one of those old 1930’s black and white movies. I found one photo of him and I didn’t like his look so I searched for another and thought it even worse.

        This could be what happens when the boys are left alone out on the hillside sludge for too long – Annie Proulx writes totally brilliantly about this.The Townshend mindset though, appears immature for somebody in a position of leadership. (In older times rural folk had church and music and craft and market activities which kept them grounded, and probably more normal)

      • In fairness Bertie there are some on your side just as bad. I had to endure some of them at Auckland Uni in the mid 90s!!!!

        • Please provide some factual examples Frank – you haven’t ever done with any of your statements before. Which makes your comment a deflection attempt.

      • Amy Baker Benjamin from above link. – In August, Benjamin launched a YouTube channel, American Spirit with Amy Benjamin, before making headlines for her appearance at the anti-lockdown protest in Auckland and her claim that the snap lockdown that month was a “crime against humanity”.

        Sound USA or I’m a duck. Is it cultural cringe, as we should have law lecturers to spare, what with it being the profession du jour! How many of the activist academics are totally home grown with a NZ education and outlook?

      • ‘In a statement, Cameron said Nash had shown “utter contempt” towards rural New Zealand….’ No he showed utter contempt for the small number of groinswellers who can afford to take time off to jerk off their antijacinda spasms..Good on him.

    • One would be silly to ignore any group that has bad, sad or mad people in their midst being vile and peddling propaganda attached to other political lunacy.

    • But doesn’t it only take one rotten apple to make all the others rotten, unless you separate them of course.

  2. Farmers in NZ are allowed to protest and have many good reasons to do so.
    Labour is attempting to undermine their protest before it begins.
    Nash is yet another Labour bully.

    • John Lowlifes like you who think that denigrating women is acceptable make me feel sick. And kindly do not make one of your usual slimey apologies or I may feel sicker.

      • Where did I say anything that denigrates women?
        My comment referred to farmers right to protest.
        How you construed that to denigrating women is just silly.

        • Gosh, John, you didn’t even look at the main post? You did not see the insulting photo that denigrates Nanaia Mahuta? Then you say that Farmers have a right to protest, and pretend you were not approving that photo?
          You always sound sleazy: the question is : this time, are you being dishonest or plain stupid? Gentle Annie nailed you fair and square either way.

    • So true John — until I read that NZ Farmers, including Maori Farmers, have a racist mindset/policy — then the answer is NO to the Wellington outrage crowd

    • And the National party didn’t make protesting at sea, stop work meetings, and strike action, not to mention anyone who isn’t a farmer get official permission to hold any sort of demonstration against their policies/actions illegal? Oh yes, that’s right, they did!! an you even spell hypocritical, let alone understand what it means? One must assume you can’t and don’t, or you wouldn’t have written a line of that silly comment..

    • and when did the supine media ever fail to mischarcterise or report the actual numbers etc of a leftist/environmentalist protest….I’ll tell you shall I?
      never THAT’S WHEN..

      did you complain about that? no of course you didn’t

    • Of course Farmers are allowed to protest.
      And of course Labour can attempt to undermine any protest at any time.

      Bullying and implying Nash is bullying farmers? I reckon anyone brave enough to expose themselves as is being done with some if the inanities on signs I’ve seen today, they’ll be able to handle a bit of lip from Nash. I mean are they going rumble their tractors home to mummy because he said of a website, “It’s a mixture of racism, anti-vax etc.”

      If he goes to the protests this weekend he’ll see that no doubt and it’ll be garnished with lashings of other ignorance.

  3. It’s a pity the term groundswell has been leveraged for a quasi-political movement as it implies, well, fruit of the earth type organic, nature unto me type stuff going on. All the farmers I know are far too busy keeping the farm running so one has to conclude they have lost the plot a bit here.

    • gin hag Precisely. These are the uber rich corporate guys, not the farmers who do the work which enriches them – there to be used in a myriad of ways.

  4. Is it ok for me to describe Ross Townsend as white trash ? New Zealand has gone overboard with ‘ cultural sensitivity’ issues aimed at obliterating our rich European heritage, and part of a global phenomenon being utilised for various agendas, but Townshend’s crude personal caricature of Minister Mahuta is ignorant racist misogynistic transferred violence, and the sort of thuggish bullying which we New Zealand women
    live with, and die with, as exemplified by our world- leading rates of wife battering and murder. Good women.

    Townshend knew the audience who he was playing to, and he played accordingly. He is indefensible. His Act apologist Cameron has (unwittingly) drawn attention to Labour rejecting the racism of the rural clodhoppers, suggesting that Act is just as bad as they are. That’s handy to know. If Labour could vocalise about the racism of other politicos, that could be quite handy too.

    In the meantime, thanks Stuart Nash – I’m starting to like him.

    • “Townshend’s crude personal caricature of Minister Mahuta is ignorant racist misogynistic transferred violence, and the sort of thuggish bullying which we New Zealand women
      live with, and die with, as exemplified by our world- leading rates of wife battering and murder. Good women.” Perfectly articulated Snow White.
      I actually physically recoiled in my chair viewing this vile image.

      • Shona. “ … physically recoiled in my chair viewing this vile image. “ That was very much my response too. I felt ill. Not a good way to start the day.

        Yet again it hammered home how inadequate so many New Zealand men are.

        It wasn’t even cruel, it was utterly pathetic, but it was a statement about “ our” males, and how they let us down time and time again – they really are unfit for human consumption, and that includes many theoretically educated males, who are still plain damn hopeless. There is a strong sexual element in the “Cindy” callers too, but that’s their problem – a sadly common problem, but their’s – medieval turds.

        Jenny Shipley, who I believe was a woman, engineered lowering the drinking age
        ( so she/he/ it said ) to try and transform our crude rude boozy culture into a more sophisticated continental European-type of socialising – not a hope in hell when the basic material is so damaged.

        And never forget that other Nat floozy Minister of Women’s Affairs who maintained a silence when “ Get some Guts” PM Key was serially tormenting a poor wee Auckland waitress, just for fun. These far right nutters need to clean their act up, but I doubt they even know how to. Try and initiate a conversation with most of them, and they don’t even have the reference points. But as others have commented, not all farming folk are like these revolting sociopaths. Kia kaha.

      • Me too, I thought–seriously! what is wrong with you Mr Townshend?

        I have visited Tatua site briefly (couple of hours) for work purposes and they seemed standard industrial Dairying type people, all for the company and product quality etc. but certainly not Trumpists or Māori bashers.

    • I like Nash. He doesn’t take the shit that National and act throw. That’s the only thing of substance that they possess.

  5. Wow, Groundswell and Ross Townshend, come on down.

    What a vile piece of shit is this former director of Tatua Dairy.

    A. This Grand Dragon klansman is wrong.

    B. Who the fuck does he think he is?

    C. Did Tatua Dairy not know what this arsehole really thought? What-fucking-ever!

    Is he just some random hateful fuck up or is does he really represent what rural dairy NZ think? One would assume some creep like this who had the temerity to post such ugly defamatory filth like this online and a leader of Groundswell (who are also well connected to the National Party) must have had their spiritual backing to think this acceptable?

    This well connected individual just took us city folk from suspecting rural people are racist ignorant hicks to making it a reality!

  6. Nathan Kerr “So we should ignore their views due to a few bad apples?” Of course not Nathan. This is the well-being and the health of the whole community at stake here, and as the greater good has to prevail, anyone trying to jeopardise that needs to be responded to.

    • Um, “greater good” of the community? In 2021 that is an alien concept to many. “The greatest good for oneself” is the common mantra.

      Then all of a sudden, when they get in the shit, the ‘we’re here for ourselves’ crowd are all into this thing, “We want someone to bail us out because it’s the community thing to do, the socialist way.”

  7. Groundswell should be thanking Labour rather than protesting them – dairy farms in particular have never been so profitable. I look forward to seeing the “Thanks Jacinda” signs on the protest!

    • What part have the Labour Government played in making dairy farming profitable?
      Farmers in NZ have pulled us through this pandemic yet I haven’t seen Jacinda with a thankyou sign.

        • John may like to look to the predicted record milk payout of $8.40 which would pour almost $13 billion into the regions Pip. Not bad for a Labour government producing an economy farmers can thrive in. Rhetoric is easily available, evidence, a little harder to deny. Any subject to have a go at the P.M and that is why John lacks credibility.

          • How can you claim record milk payouts are because of the Labour Government.
            It’s the farmers that have held up the economy despite the current Government making their lives more difficult by the day.

            • Ahh, like clockwork, of course this response was coming. It’s the economy baby, the economy. You like to see yourself as bright( although poles s would say otherwise)work it out.

      • Worth remembering that the biggest expansion in dairy farming i.e most dairy farms converted from dry stock and forestry happened under the Clark/ Little labour government!

        • Good point Mark. I noticed the room went quite and no other reply’s to your comment. I don’t believe many points were scored for either side. Groundswell are yelling from their pathetic bubble and Nash. What the fuck has he ever done. Watched tourism go into a death roll. And Minister of economic development. Oh ok then. His mouthing off is like Trump yelling fake news. A list MP educated in Canterbury and ended up in Napier.

          • New view. Do you really think tourism will go into a death roll under Minister Nash ? Oh good. A big thank you from the environment and from me this is so – and not forgetting the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd at Tekapo, where it’s not the sheep who shit around the grounds, and who interrupt the locals at their prayers by chattering loudly in the aisles and photographing them at rather private times.

            There are better ways of generating income than by prostituting this country, and pathways to a necessary more sustainable future in view of the climate change impacts ahead. More kudos to Stuart Nash here.

            • GA I don’t know what you contribute to the economy of this country but tourism certainly does. Yes it’s impact has to be measured against the environment. The way you easily write off the livelihoods of thousands of people shows a certain selfishness in my opinion. The tens of thousands of NewZealanders that have filled the tourist gap during Covid. How do you classify them. Are they scum also. You talk of the church at Tekapo. You must have been there as I have. You must be a tourist. I think you suffer from tunnel vision “ not so Gentle Annie “

    • napierboy. This issue is not and was not about the profitability of dairy farms. Stop trying to twist things, it won’t work: we’re not all as moronic as Groundswell, Act and you are.

  8. I guess by the time Mr Townshend posted his post,he had a few drinks under his belt…very expensive evening. for him

  9. Groundswell NZ has dropped its Hamilton organiser over comments he made on social media about Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta. (Stuff 17th Nov.)
    Long-serving Tatua director Ross Townshend has resigned from the blue chip Waikato dairy company over a social media post about Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta slammed as “vile”, “despicable” and “racist” by observers. (NZ Herald 16th Nov.)

    • Alexandra C D. The irony here is that Nanaia Mahuta comes from a far more distinguished, educated, and achieved family than Townshend or any of these other Johnny-come-lately boys. I knew her mother well as an undergrad at Otago University – generations of high calibre people.

      Nevertheless, no matter what her pedigree, no woman should be publicly ridiculed and degraded the way that the Nats do it.

      Woodhouse raffled a lavatory seat with a woman politician’s face emblazoned on it; that was schoolboy level behaviour; John Key, as PM, felt free to run around pulling a young waitress’s ponytail in her workplace. The characters who call the PM “Cindy”, need to see shrinks.

      Mr Townshend may be socially backward, but resigning isn’t good enough. He owes the women of New Zealand an apology, and I think that he needs mental health help.

  10. We have many Townshends in our country many hide behind keyboards and play on peoples ignorance, racism ,discrimination, unfounded fears, misogyny and long held prejudices.

  11. I like Nash. He doesn’t take the shit that National and act throw. That’s the only thing of substance that they possess.

  12. The Right Whingers who so readily but so pettily, denigrate the Left’s classy women, should take a listen/look at their own three witches…. very reminiscent of the trio in Shakespeare’s Macbeh:
    ….”bubble, bubble, toil and trouble” ….
    Question Time in Parliament shows them at their whinging, overbearing, arrogant, classless best; check them out.
    Chief Hrrmmmpphha Judith Collins, then Nicola Willis (does she really always talk down like that? – gotta feel sorry for her kids) and Louise Upston (if looks could kill, Parliament would be a slaughter house).
    If a trio of witches is a tad harsh, try drama queens.
    Interchangeable.

  13. It’s funny how the pretend ‘left’ pretend to be an open church and invite discussion but can’t handle criticism or a return serve. They go all special privileged and middle class and wheel out the tired old hag attack.

    The has been someones and the might have been that might have been if wasn’t for them selling out the working class to elevate themselves and become gatekeepers.

    Looks like there’s a few wokester Labourites who just can’t handle the truth about their underperforming leader and their caretaker government.

    And then their past catches up with them. The ghost of Roger Douglas comes knocking.

  14. there are things to complain about Mahuta and some of her pronouncements actions and failures to act BUUTTT….her facial tattooing isn’t one of them.

  15. Oh God… ( Sigh )
    When will you learn, all of you, that our primary industry is being manipulated by the same people who manipulate city people? When’s the dirty little penny going to drop?
    I can’t understand how the blindingly obvious eludes most if you??
    There are those deeply institutionalised few who’ve made billions out of capitalising on the yawning cultural gap between farmers, who are our primary industry who earn the money we use to buy imported goods and services, and our city people who, like it or not, spend that money. That’s a simple fact. There’s no counter argument so stop looking for it. Instead, look to engaging with farmers. Stop it with the divisive, pathetic insults and condemnations.
    Instead, focus on why our farmers and our city people are so easily manipulated into conflict with each other?
    Mention farmers and protest and I immediately read the same old guff. ‘Racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘banjo playing’ etc.
    It’s always the same boring narrative used to described our farmers when they attempt to rise to action and demand to be heard. Do any of you city people rise to action and listen? Are all non farmer people NOT racist, sexist, banjo playing morons then?
    I suspect that the right wing, the bloody natzo’s, the farmers party, are behind egging farmers into conflict with what can only be described as a Labour party Hell bent on reformation after roger douglas and his fearsome minions laid waste to us all via Old Labour. ( roger itself was a pig incarcerater, remember? )
    It’s my opinion that factions within the National Party are deliberately enraging our farmers into parading about, making fools of themselves, saying stupid things and doing stupid things while believing stupid things to destabilise our farmers and to make sure our farmers NEVER feel comfortable with engaging with city people.
    I believe the National Party are deliberately creating friction and it’s National and their dirty riche who’re behind this latest fiasco.
    Don’t get we wrong, however. I’m all for direct action. I’m all for farmers striking and not producing. I’m all for farmers telling city people to get fucked. I’m all for keeping the rams and bulls in. I’m all for ploughing the grain back into the paddock. City people would be fucked in a week. Most city people have no idea how to grow food of any kind. ALL city people rely on foreign exchange in one way or another and the last time I looked, farmers earned 90% of it. And now that tourism is sick and dying, that percentage is likely closer to 99%!
    Farmers? You’re being played like banjos. You’re not only being exploited, you’re being demonised by politicians whom you’ve come to trust and ridiculed by city people for standing up for yourselves, however crudely that might be. Look? Farmers? You don’t need to fuck about driving tractors through towns and cities sporting ludicrous and ignorant catch phrases. All you need to do is do nothing. It’s that easy. All you need to do is strike. And force your abusers to come to you?

    • ….You’re onto it @ Countryboy A great victory for our farmer cousins in India who have been protesting for 12 months against there government imposing unworkable and potential crippling changes to there farmers, the Modi government has backed down…..Now that’s a mother of a protest!

  17. Seems you have done a good job hijacking this post John. Started a groundswell of your own. Daddy will be pleased with you. And it is so hard for the protagonists not to react isn’t it.

  18. These thoughts dont suddenly appear. To post something like that he must have had a few conversations with his groundswell mates whipping a bit of courage to express their true feelings.

  19. As always; Follow the money, The climate change denying farmers and the covid deniers have one thing in common. They both hate any interruption in the flow of profits that taking active measures to protect the environment or public health will entail.

    All their weird and wonderful conspiracies are a smokescreen to hide their real concerns over losing money.

  20. A flow of profits to the primary sector is essential to the NZ economy without it we would truly be a third world country.

  21. Oh, Dear! What a turnout ‘again’ by the Anti’s and MAGA’s!

    labour better pick their coalition partner, ACT or National and start kiss’n arse before these guys get into parliament under their own banner!

    Otherwise, it could be a right-with Trifecta! Act, National and the Anti-MAGA’s!

    • And then the next day … Here’s the other half of the MAGAs, Groundswell.
      The hillbilly webbed toed banjo playing minstrels and Cletus and his family.
      With a few learner apprentice NZ nazi’s in tow.

  22. First time here. Interesting the daily blog pitches itself as independent. From what I can see in these comments there isn’t much bias free comment or intelligent commentary. Writing off groundswell by saying they are racists and anti vaxxers because a few people may have said something on a different topic is ridiculous. So you disregard all things groundswell stand for because of something one or two people say. Does that mean that the Labour Party are a bunch if racists because one of them sexually assaulted a young woman at the conference in 2019? Talk about cancel culture stifling debate. It’s convenient of the government to try and paint them as a bunch of anti vaccine nutters as they don’t want to face up to the fact there is a fast growing contingent of disenfranchised New Zealanders. The PM won’t even come to Auckland unless on a flying staged visit that gives good PR. She won’t visit those who are suffering in Auckland because they are at every turn at it wouldn’t be a good look to see the anger from those in the team of 5 million that seem to have been forgotten about completely-not to mention those New Zealander’s who have been locked out and can’t even return to their own country. No other country in the world has done this-it’s illegal and that’s why everyone a legal challenge is mounted the court case is dropped and the plaintiff awarded an MIQ spot.

  24. Great to see the groundswell protests went on without a hitch around the country, looks like a good time had by all and didn’t appear to be any anti vaccine or racist type people hijack the event, we’ll done NZ farmers and there supporters.

  26. But doesn’t it only take one rotten apple to make all the others rotten, unless you separate them of course.

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