By Don Brash

Written by Don Brash in his capacity as Hobson's Pledge trustee

This morning, you were meant to open the New Zealand Herald and see a full page ad calling out Christopher Luxon and the National Party for their failure to support democracy, equality, and a New Zealand based on unity – not racial division.

Instead, NZME is clearly making up rules on the hoof and introduced new creative restrictions at the very last moment (literally yesterday afternoon) and refused to print it unless we complied.

We told them to get stuffed. We are not playing their games.

You can see our ad below.

But unpublished it is, because the leadership at NZME want to censor what you see, read, and hear. They were set on finding any excuse not to publish an ad that supported the Treaty Principles Bill.

Initially, they pushed back on the polls we refer to in the ad, saying they needed the actual numbers rather than percentages. The implication was that they didn't trust the data being provided. This is strange as the New Zealand Herald regularly publishes articles based on Curia Research polling and it is possible they have even reported on these polls!

Next they accused us of using AI to create the image of Luxon. The problem is, their advocacy ad rules do not mention a ban on AI. The second problem is our designer used Photoshop for this image, not AI.

But NZME dug in. They called the image “misleading”.

You will have seen our ads in the past and recall that we have used Photoshopped images to satirically portray politicians of all stripes. Think of political ads you've seen from other groups – they have frequently done the same!

In the end, NZME said they would only publish the ad if we removed the image of Luxon and replaced it with a silhouette or some kind of stock image. What? What would be the point in that? The message is about the Prime Minister, not some mysterious shadowy figure!

Their decision to yet again reject one of our ads is appalling. It’s prejudiced, censorious, and it’s wrong.

We were prepared to pay a significant amount to NZME to publish the ad. You might not know, but after our front page ad about Māori ownership of the coastline, the Herald decided that all advocacy groups wanting to advertise had to pay top dollar. No discounts, no ‘distress deals' – we had to pay their full price.

We all know NZME and other media outlets are doing it tough. In fact, that’s probably understating it -they’re in financial trouble. Yet, they are so captured by radicals across a range of issues, they’re quite prepared to sink themselves further rather than accept money from Hobson’s Pledge and Kiwis who want a New Zealand that’s not divided by race.

The team that created the ad for us told NZME straight: “Our client considers it extraordinary that it is so difficult for them to spend advertising dollars with NZME.”

Not only is National selling New Zealand out and embracing divisive policies, but mainstream media are just as bad.

The Prime Minister and his National MPs are too scared to vote according to what their supporters want. They are even too scared to vote according to what the majority of New Zealanders want – to support the Treaty Principles Bill.

So afraid of the Opposition and the compromised media, National won’t even support a referendum.

Hobson’s Pledge is committed to being the voice for New Zealanders who want unity and equality. While politicians and media will do their best to ignore you, we are going to ensure your voice is seen across the country.

We are not taking NZME’s pathetic decision lying down. That is why, we have reworked our newspaper ad and are going to put it out on billboards across the country. And you better believe we are going to make it clear that NZME refused to publish it.

But a decent billboard campaign is more expensive than the newspaper ad we were going to run. We hadn't accounted for this in our budget for the Treaty Principles Bill campaign. Will you chip in to make up the difference?

We have booked as many billboard sites as our budget allows, but depending on the level of support we get for this, we will ask LUMO to expand the campaign more widely.

Let's hold Christopher Luxon, National, and legacy media to account. They don't want the message that New Zealanders are disappointed and angry that they voted down the Treaty Principles Bill to be spread. They want the issue to quietly go away so they can continue embedding the Treaty in bills like the Gene Technology Bill and standing by while local councils find more sneaky ways to adopt co-governance.

Fighting powerful opponents is expensive. We cannot mount campaigns against them without your backing and we really do not want to have to give them an inch.

We all knew the Treaty Principles Bill would be voted down.

From day one, Christopher Luxon said he would vote it down and force his MPs to do the same. Yet, even knowing this, it still makes us angry and disappointed to see it happen.

We will not forget.

It is clear that National and all parties other than ACT believe in separate rules and privileges for groups based on their ethnicity.

Labour MP Willie Jackson even said during the second reading of the Bill that people who believe in equal rights and equality are, quote: “nut jobs”.

And we will not forget.

With the defeat of this Bill, Parliament is allowing the continued push for separatism and co-governance. It is also leaving responsibility for the interpretation of the Treaty with activists, judges, and misguided academics.

We will not forget.

We know from the emails we have seen from National MPs replying to their constituents, that they think discussing hard topics must be avoided.

We will not forget.

The Treaty Principles Bill would have drawn a clear line in the sand with clear definitions. Instead, Parliament voting down the Bill means we will see even more co-governance, more separatism, more activism. No wonder so many people are leaving New Zealand!

WE WILL NOT FORGET.

With your support, we are not going away, no matter how much Christopher Luxon and the Opposition wish we would.

We know that we represent the perspective of a majority of National supporters. We know we speak on behalf of many from across the political spectrum – we are, after all, one of the largest grassroots groups in the country.

Politicians come and go, but this issue and the terrible disunity that springs from it will endure until someone with enough integrity and courage sorts it out. David Seymour gave it his best shot.

We will not forget.

Originally published on BassettBrashAndHide.