Offended by a... Warehouse ad?

The week started like any other in recent memory: with a media frenzy over comments made by Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, this time on social media about the Regulatory Standards Bill.

Seymour drew attention to his critics and jokingly diagnosed them with “RSDS” – ‘Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome’. Cue the outrage! ‘How could our DPM post such a thing!?’

In a free and democratic society like ours, it’s essential that individuals are free to criticise elected officials and challenge proposed laws. But in that same free and democratic society, there is also a right of reply for those being criticised. 

Critics claim Seymour is bullying or trying to silence his opponents, arguing that they should be off-limits because they aren’t professional politicians or in government. Nonsense. The moment you speak up publicly and make a submission, you enter the political arena.

Tory Whanau even claimed "such actions could incite behaviour that spills into real-world violence." 🤦‍♂️

If you make a statement, expect a response. A reply means you have been heard, not censored. As I spoke about with Andrew Urquhart on the radio this week, we need to stop seeing disagreement as intimidation and start recognising it for what it really is: an opportunity. 

What some label an attempt at silencing was actually an invitation to conversation. So why not engage? Good ideas do not hide from scrutiny; they stand up to it. But can we do it? Or are we too scared, too thin-skinned? 

Speaking of scared and offended, there is plenty of that going around too. Just this week, ahead of Youth Parliament 2025, some young participants were told to remove criticism of the government and tone down their speeches. 

What could possibly have given these young, hopeful politicians the idea that Parliament is a place for fierce debate and pointed questions? I wonder.

Regardless, this push for self-censorship and compelled speech has no place in our Parliament, and our politicians should know better considering how many of them came through this exact pathway. Free speech is the lifeblood of democracy, and if we want a healthy democracy, respect for and the practice of free speech should start in Parliament. 
 
Are our MPs so fragile they cannot handle criticism from teenagers? Is it not better to hear unfiltered thoughts and respond? 

Let them speak freely. Let them debate fiercely. That is how they learn and grow.

If they are wrong, let them exercise the greatest error-correction tool we have: free speech.

It is not about agreeing with them, it is about testing and contesting, keeping the flow of ideas open. If they say something offensive, good. Democracy can handle it and always has. 

Meanwhile, the bar for causing offence keeps sinking. The Warehouse pulled an ad after two complaints were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority, claiming the ad was "annoying" and "offensive", with one saying they "object to girls (or anyone) being aligned with an inability to do maths". 👧🏻

Hardly ironclad arguments, yet enough to shut down a national marketing campaign.

Was this ad 'offensive'? Well, that is a subjective term, after all... Why don't you decide for yourself?

The ad, which has now been removed from Warehouse social media, contained shots of different bags, asking ‘what does your bag say about you?’.

The one in question? A child’s pink and purple backpack with a unicorn on it, with the slogan, ‘Can’t do long division’.

When standards are so subjective, outrage becomes a tool for censorship. Anyone with an axe to grind can shut down speech by claiming offence, and too often our regulators oblige.

In a world of hot takes and clickbait, and the last thing we need is more power handed to professional complainers.

The pattern is clear: we are rewarding outrage and hypersensitivity instead of robust debate and rational discussion.

We do not protect speech because it never offends, we protect it because it does. If we keep letting the easily offended dictate the rules, we will lose the one thing that keeps our democracy strong: the freedom to speak, to challenge, to disagree, and yes, even to offend.

So let us raise the standard, speak freely, and let the best ideas rise and the worst ones fall. Our democracy depends on it. 

Nathan Seiuli | Free Speech Union