Police Must Stop Unlawful Training

Commissioner Coster,

RE: Unlawful Hate Speech Training for NZ Police

NZ Police officers are currently receiving compulsory training designed to help them detect ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crimes.’ 

Examples of such ‘offences’ in the training material include the statements, ‘There are only two genders’, ‘Kiwi Not Iwi’ and perhaps the most perplexing of all, ‘Free Speech’. 

Hate crime laws do not exist in NZ. 'Hate speech' is very narrowly defined in the Human Rights Act. However, the examples presented to officers in this case are not only highly prejudicial, but should be self-evidently legal. 

‘Free of expression’ is a right enshrined in our Bill of Rights Act. ‘Kiwi Not Iwi’ formed the campaign slogan of the National Party in 2005. To invert this fundamental right by presenting it as criminal is outrageous and suggests a deliberate politicisation of NZ Police under your leadership. Senior officers have contacted us alarmed by these unjustified moves within their ranks.

If this training is implemented as per the module’s own instructions to ‘Recognise, Record, and Respond’, law enforcement in this instance would be enforcing laws which do not exist! 

NZ Police exercise authority according to the doctrine of ‘policing by consent.’ Such extra-judicial activism defies this fundamental public mandate by showing a callous disregard for the Sovereignty of Parliament as sole author of NZ law. 


We call on you to cease this training immediately. 

12,376 signatures

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Showing 7872 reactions

  • Peter Andrew
    signed 2024-08-09 15:21:40 +1200
  • Margot Holcroft
    signed 2024-08-09 14:58:11 +1200
  • Maja Mihelic
    signed 2024-08-09 14:27:12 +1200
  • Floyd Rudolph
    signed 2024-08-09 14:26:57 +1200
  • Anne O'Reilly
    signed 2024-08-09 14:16:03 +1200
  • Robert Newbegin
    signed 2024-08-09 14:14:05 +1200
  • Alastair Sell
    signed 2024-08-09 12:44:40 +1200
  • Deborah Skinley
    signed 2024-08-09 12:35:07 +1200
  • Enrico Ziegler
    signed 2024-08-09 12:34:56 +1200
  • Nicole Way
    signed 2024-08-09 12:34:29 +1200
  • Phillip Ashworth
    signed 2024-08-09 12:27:16 +1200
  • Ian Glenister
    signed 2024-08-09 12:17:50 +1200
  • Morry Nielsen-Vold
    signed 2024-08-09 12:06:47 +1200
  • Rob and Darelle Sayers
    signed 2024-08-09 11:49:44 +1200
  • Miguel Leguizamon
    signed 2024-08-09 11:41:32 +1200
  • tom Colman
    signed 2024-08-09 11:13:42 +1200
  • John Banks
    signed 2024-08-09 11:00:40 +1200
  • Sandra Christensen
    signed 2024-08-09 11:00:04 +1200
  • Antonio Ganz
    signed 2024-08-09 10:31:41 +1200
  • Winona Taylor
    signed 2024-08-09 09:59:57 +1200
    We can’t let them win this. We need to push back.

    Thank you for doing all this work
  • Frieda Lanser
    signed 2024-08-09 09:53:05 +1200
  • Georgina Cane
    signed 2024-08-09 09:19:10 +1200
    This is.completely & utterly ridiculous. Luvon Government is following in the heels of where Labour left off.we the people have a God Given right to verbally express ourselves, not to have Government & Police telling us what we can & can’t say ..
  • Belinda Goldfinch
    signed 2024-08-09 09:15:33 +1200
  • Armin Ziegler
    signed 2024-08-09 09:14:33 +1200
    I agree fully with the content of this petition but also warn of seriously negative consequences if the process of recording and acting on denunciation by known or unidentified accusers becomes a permissible process. This needs to stop altogether. Freedom of speech is important for healthy debates and an open society.
  • Phillip Andrews
    signed 2024-08-09 08:54:30 +1200
  • Katy Hopkinson
    signed 2024-08-09 08:48:16 +1200
  • Michelle Brackebush
    signed 2024-08-09 08:32:44 +1200
    The interpretation of Hate Speech will be ambiguous: An individual/groups meaning on a comment may not be “hate speech” at all, but merely speech they “hate”.
  • Joe Wheeler
    signed 2024-08-09 08:28:52 +1200
  • Edward Hogg
    signed 2024-08-09 08:21:32 +1200
  • Bruce Johnston
    signed 2024-08-09 08:19:48 +1200

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