My speech on free speech for the Keith Locke Memorial Debate

This was my speech at the 2026 Keith Locke Memorial Debate.

The moot: Hate speech laws threaten free speech

Moderator: Jane Kelsey
For the Affirmative: Martyn Bradbury (leader), Verity Johnson, Thomas Beagle
For the Negative: Simon Wilson (leader), Anjum Rahman, Yasmine Serhan

 

Comrades I bring Bread and Roses

Kia Ora to the esteemed members of the Kieth Locke Memorial Debate group and thank you for putting this evenings event on, our civil society is deeply grateful to you.

Greetings to the Left Wing Legend and recreational Jedi that is Professor Jane Kelsey as moderator.

Solidarity to those here tonight in person who keep Kieth’s legacy alight with your participation and to the many , many, many millions watching this debate live right now online.

We thank you for your attention to these urgent matters in our nation as misinformation, disinformation and social media hate algorithms warp the political debate so much so that they now corrode the very foundational values of our democracy.

I salute my worthy opposition, for they are about to die – not literally, but metaphorically.

Tonight I have the privilege of being leader of the affirmative Team as we debate the moot Hate Speech Laws threaten free speech.

This evening my team mate, famous Civil Rights Lawyer and custodian for civil liberties, Mr Thomas Beagle, will convincingly argue that hate speech laws are a threat to freedom of expression and are legally difficult to define.

After Thomas, the third team mate of our group, well known Newspaper columnist and defender of free speech, Verity Johnston, who will expand on why anyone would trust the State with something as important as Free Speech because would anyone in this room seriously trust Chris Luxon, David Seymour or Winston Peters to define what free speech should be?

They seem to need help defining what a woman is.

Or what a limousine is.

Or what a healthy school lunch is.

Or what a war crime is.

You know what, let’s just send the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister a dictionary before we get them to define hate speech laws.

Comrades – my name is Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury, which is a terrible nickname for airport security – I am the editor of the Daily Blog, NZs largest left wing blog and host of the weekly political podcast, The Bradbury Group and I have some thoughts on free speech.

My job tonight as Captain of this evening’s Affirmative team, is not just to convince you that Hate Speech Laws threaten free speech, oh no, that would be too easy a task.

No offence Simon.

Brothers and sisters, tonight I won’t just strive to convince you that Hate Speech Laws threaten free speech, tonight I will challenge and argue and debate that the NZ Left itself should surge forward and retake the mantle of free speech champions from the Right who have been allowed to weaponise free speech and rob it of its legitimacy.

Tonight I cry out to the NZ Left, don’t merely accept free speech, consensually embrace and champion it!

Our desire as a movement to protect minorities without power from feral and oppressive insults and harassment  has been twisted by the Right into a narrative of Woke Big Brother censoring opinions.

We must take this moment as a movement to reflect on why Free Speech is so important.

Our nation, Aotearoa New Zealand,  whakapapas to a unique Te Ao Māori worldview and an 800 year western democratic tradition that takes us back to the Magna Carta, the values of which have been sharpened and tested over centuries of friction between King and Citizen, Tory and Whig, Catholic and Protestant.

These Western Democratic values hold a gravity to their logic that demands a citizen engage and protects.

Free Speech.
No taxation without representation.
The recognition of the rights of the individual
Freedom of religion
Separation of Powers,
Rule of law
and an independent judiciary.

Not only are these truths self evident, they demand from us more than mere lip service if we are to defend the institutions now under attack.

I want to note clearly from the start that we are not Free Speech Absolutists.

You can’t yell fire in a theatre and then be blameless for the crush afterwards.

You can’t defame someone and you can not incite violence nor harass or intimidate others.

Take Bishop Brian Tamaki, no please take him.

The Bish claims he was using free speech to criticise Churches being attacked by extremist Hindu Nationalists in India.

Ok, he has the free speech and right to be critical of that.

But then he called on his nutty cultist followers to purge Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus from NZ while calling on his nutty cultist followers to burn down mosques and temples.

Disgraceful and disgusting!

Free speech does not allow you to incite violence on others, and that’s exactly what he did. The Police shouldn’t just be turning up at his house to seize his guns, they should be arresting him for a multitude of existing laws!

There are 3 laws the Bishop has broken here:

Incitement to commit an offence
Threatening or intimidating behaviour
and Inciting racial disharmony

We don’t need new hate speech laws, we just need enforcement of the existing laws!

Comrades –  hate speech laws are never used against those we on the Left feel should be punished.

We imagine when we push for hate speech laws that it is the racists, the homophobes, the  bigots who will get arrested, but the State has a long, long, long history – as laid out by Keith’s own indomitable Sister Maaare Leadbeater in her remarkable book, ‘The Enemy Within’ which charts how the State has abused it’s surveillance powers using trumped up charges of hate speech.

Hone Harawira was under state surveillance, Nicky Hager was, I was, Unions were, environmentalists were, Kieth Lock himself was under State surveillance since he was 11 years old.

When an 11 year old Kieth Locke is defined as a threat to the state, how are any of us safe?

The majority of the political prisoners in the UK right now are environmentalists  and Palestine Action protestors.

If I merely said the words, ‘Palestine action’ in the UK right now I’d be arrested!

Hate speech laws are never used against the people we believe they should be used against, they are always overwhelmingly used by the State to suppress and shut down any debate they feel threatened by.

The Free Speech Union is an astro turf front group that is part of the Taxpayer’s Union cabal of manipulation. They have weaponised free speech using a narrative that the Left want to censor and tonight I put to you that the Left should not be in the business of censoring anyone, but should instead champion free speech so that we can speak truth to power.

9 times out of 10, the red line for any of these so called right wing free speech champions is any criticism of the appalling war crimes by Israel, crimes so bad they technically breach genocide levels. The moment you start criticising Israel suddenly it’s antisemitic hate speech.

The Left needs to take back the power of our Free Speech.

Hate Speech laws are not used against those spouting filth towards our migrant brothers and sisters, they are used to strangle off legitimate criticism and put guardrails up about what is and what is not permissible in the public sphere of debate.

Go after those spouting filth with defamation action, or existing anti-harassment laws or when the speech incites violence, arrest them then, but don’t create the perception that we are censoring free speech when free speech is instrumental to our own capacity as a movement to hold the powerful to account!

Champion free speech by broadening those who can access it.

Champion Free speech by engaging with the debate.

Champion Free speech by challenging power.

There is a reason why Free speech is a foundational value of our Western Democratic tradition, tampering with it generates immediate backlash because it is such a foundational value.

We become weaker as a movement when we cancel the speech of those we detest and we lose the ability to persuade others of the strength of our ideas.

Brothers and Sisters, tonight isn’t just about Hate Speech Laws threatening free speech, tonight is about us as a movement recognising the 800 year tradition our values whakaapa back to,

Free Speech isn’t a nice to have from an archaic time, it is the essential oxygen to a Democracy that risks igniting opposition by creating hate speech laws rather than promoting Free Speech solidarity to speak truth to power.

Comrades – I call upon the opening of this debate in earnest

Thank you