Some dispatches from the Freedoms party. (It’s notable how government institutions keep trying to shut them down).
What a week we’ve had…our Freedoms NZ team are working incredibly hard on your behalf, because we believe you deserve better political representation, and we’re determined to make it happen for you.
Hot off the back of a super successful week at the Fieldays, our team have barely stopped.
Tuesday: Wellington & Broadcasting Allocation High Court Case
On Tuesday we were in the High Court Wellington as Sue Grey presented an excellent case against the Electoral Commission that the Broadcasting Allocations are unfair and unjust for minor parties, and particularly component parties of an Umbrella Party. A classic David vs Goliath fight. The Labour Party currently receive 20 times the allocation of small or new parties, so no surprise that Labour sent along their legal watchdog to the whole proceedings. Judge Rebecca Ellis was very favourable to us with her comments. Even she seemed to be in disbelief that the Broadcasting Allocation is so unfair towards new and minor parties. The Judge has reserved her decision as she awaits some more information from the Electoral Commission’s lawyer. Hopefully, we will have her decision next week.
Tuesday: Blenheim
Our team are legends…after a full day in court on Tuesday they boarded a plane to land in Blenheim for another well-attended Take Back Your Power event in Blenheim on Tuesday night. Brian & Hannah arrived first, and got the show underway, and Sue flew in around 8pm, fresh from the courtroom and launched straight into the Q & A part of the event.
Young Vision leader, Daniel Daly, joined the roadshow for the first time and presented a youth voice.
We made some fantastic connections with many farmers, business owners and concerned Kiwis, and enjoyed a late dinner with some local leaders before our team hit the road to Nelson in the midnight hour.
Wednesday: Nelson & Council Challenge
With the fresh news that the Nelson Council had cancelled our booking at Greenmeadows Community Centre, our Freedoms NZ were up and at it early on Wednesday, ready to face off with another opposition.
The local venue manager said the call to cancel had come from above his head from the Group Manager Community Services, Andrew White, for reasons unclear. Apparently they’d received complaints (of which they’ve provided no evidence of yet), or perhaps it was a security concern, or one staff member suggested that the manager didn’t like Freedoms NZ. Who only knows?
The advantage to having a lawyer as a part of the team, Sue jumped to preparing High Court injunction docs, while Brian and the rest of the team gathered outside the Nelson City Council to protest and to speak to the local media. We asked to speak with Mr Andrew White which sent the council into a flap as security looked to lock down the council building, as their managers scrambled to locate Mr Andrew White. First, they said he was offsite, next he was with the CEO, next he was on the phone…his assistant wouldn’t come down to talk with us either…and then finally after waiting a while…Sue received an email that our event could proceed. By pushing back on their bulldust, we won.
And what a turn out we had in Nelson at our Take Back Your Power event. We had to bring in extra seats. A small number of about 10 protestors gathered outside our venue with their megaphone and loudspeaker for their music. The trouble is, they left the Bluetooth channel open on their speaker, and some of our young ones kept interrupting their loud music with car noises and more which caused the protestors in confusion and frustration to abandon their attempts to drain us out with their music. Such a shame…our security team were enjoying dancing to their music…lol. Turns out the leader of the protest, was this lady…no surprise, she’s an Avid Labour supporter…
As you can tell we are having a lot of fun on the road, and nothing they try can steal our joy…we approach everything with a positive, yet tongue-in-cheek attitude.
We are continually buoyed by the fact that there are hundreds for us, and only a few against us.
Thursday: Greymouth
Our team were on the road again from Nelson to Greymouth, stopping off in Murchison along the way to warm their toes by a fireplace and mix with the locals.
After a couple of days of Greymouth’s cancel culture striking in full force and cancelling venue after venue on us…our team began to set up at the latest acquired venue of the RSA…only to then be told partway through setup, that this venue had cancelled on us too. Could it be because this RSA also shares their building with the local Labour MPs office?
But we always win, and a beautiful couple made their venue at Union Hotel available to us, for our meeting to go ahead despite all odds and haters best attempts to deter us. Six venues later…we won!
We even had this delightful group of warm and cherry supporters turn up to show us how much we were welcome in their town…
Friday: Rangiora
Our team hit the road and enjoyed the beautiful scenic route through Arthurs Pass, stopping to enjoy the scenery and local delicacies along the way and arriving in the great Canterbury region.
Last night we had another well-attended event in Rangiora with a crowd of people very engaged in political matters. Some had travelled over an hour to attend this event, coming from places as far as Marlborough and further afield, plus we had many locals. Again, we had to bring out more seats.
A massive big thank you must go out to our team of volunteers who are with us on the road, setting up venues, promoting events, taking memberships, recording videos and photos, taking care of logistics and more…our A team are quite simply the best, and the most fun to travel with.
And the food…every where we go the locals are showering us with so much delicious food…we are truly spoilt.
COMING EVENTS
From today onwards we have the following events occurring:
STAY POSTED
Our First Roadshow Tour has purely been about creating awareness of Freedoms NZ and the umbrella party concept which is new to many. Stay posted from the 14th July 2023 as we roll out…
- Policy Announcements
- Freedoms NZ Campaign Tour
- Freedoms NZ Super September Rallies
We are gaining such incredible momentum, so make sure you don’t miss a beat, and join us in gathering support around this beautiful country.
That’s all the updates I have time for right now…as we must fly off to our event this afternoon in Christchurch.
Remember…Together, we’re better…Party Vote Freedoms New Zealand.
Blessings
Jenny Marshall
Party Secretary
Uncoffined 
You must be logged in to post a comment.