When Paul Goldsmith isn’t passing laws for vigilante’s, his Human Rights Commission appointments are being deemed illegal…
High Court finds justice minister’s appointment of two commissioners unlawful
The High Court has ruled that Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith unlawfully appointed Human Rights Commissioner Stephen Rainbow and Race Relations Commissioner Melissa Derby.
Neither of the commissioners will have to stand down from their jobs as the challenge from human rights advocate Paul Thistoll did not seek for them to be actually removed.
The appointments were controversial at the time, with Labour and others accusing the minister of kowtowing to ACT rather than following the proper process.
…appointing an Israeli apologist as the Chief Human Rights Commissioner when Israel is actively conducting in real time an ethnic cleansing war crime is such a stain on our collective mana.
Doubling down, this hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing disabled abusing Government has also selected Free Speech Stormtrooper, Dr Melissa Derby…
Derby has previously been named as a member of the Free Speech Union.
In an April 2023 column by RNZ’s Mediawatch on protests around anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, it was reported that Derby “liked a tweet calling for [trans activist Shaneel] Lal to be “locked up” and retweeted one saying the “trans movement” cannot be tolerated in civil society.”
Derby has also appeared in a series of videos for the website The Common Room with titles like “Equity or Equality” and “Is the system stacked against some Kiwis?”
In the latter video, she asks, “If systemic racism is the cause for a disproportionate number of Māori experiencing poor outcomes, why don’t all Māori experience poor outcomes?
“In fact, on many measures, the vast majority of Maori perform perfectly well. How is this possible, if systemic racism is everywhere, causing poor outcomes?”
…to appoint such Culture War Grifters onto our Human Rights Commission is an affront to the values of that Commission.
It’s like appointing book burners to run the library.
The culture shock alongside the right wing legislative blitzkrieg being rammed through are inter generational and these appointments represent a mutilation of our Human Rights, not their protection.
What a sad day for NZ Human Rights.
Installing an Israeli Apologist and a Free Speech Stormtrooper onto the Human Rights Commission undermines our collective human rights mana and was always intended to corrode the Human Rights Commission.
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Thank you for your incredible words Hohr. Absolute pearls of wisdom.
He is an illegitimate MP. The corruption in Epsom continues.
“ It’s like pointing book burners to run the library.” Well, they did did’t they ? Nor are this pair the first questionable commissioners. Derby, who I’ve never heard of before, cited the Albert Park event, and I’m not the only New Zealand woman who thinks that a Commissioner or two behaved unacceptably regarding that occasion; one of them even rued not being able to participate in silencing women’s voice, just like Chris Hipkins did in spite of not knowing what a woman is. Police also got away with being far too partisan there and I don’t recall any damn commissioner being concerned about the violence and terror involved in shutting up women.
Stephen Rainbow’s appointment, IMO, will dismay New Zealanders as as much an affront to democracy as smelly Talley’s are to just about everything considered decent, but no-one has ever considered Goldsmith endowed with smarts. Isn’t he the one who ‘ums’ and ‘ ahs’ interminably as he stumbles through his Parliamentary speeches?