Speech Rights Upheld In Xiao V Wong Case After FSU's Victory For Portia Mao
'This is the second time we've seen the HDCA weaponised by Morgan Xiao, against journalists whose jobs are to report freely on matters of public interest. But we're thrilled that, also for the second time, the Court has respected free speech and dismissed the case. The Free Speech Union's victory for Portia Mao set an important precedent for Wong, whose case was supported by Stuff through legal representation.
'Attempts to gag Stuff journalist Justin Wong under the HDCA were based on two incidents. Firstly, he reposted to his LinkedIn page a story about Portia Mao. Xiao asserted that by reposting, Wong encouraged people to take action against him. Secondly, Wong emailed Xiao, asking him a number of questions for an article he planned to publish in the Post. Apparently, this caused Xiao 'harm'.
'As Judge Davenport said, ' It would be a sad state of affairs if simply sending an email requesting answers to questions which Mr Xiao could choose not to respond to amounted to a harmful digital communication without more.'
'Mao was silenced after working to expose foreign interference in New Zealand. We operated as a critical conduit for her, funding barrister Callum Fredric, and drawing attention to the story. Wong's win today proves that Mao's victory was good news for all Kiwis.
'If journalists can be silenced for asking questions, our democracy is in trouble. The HDCA needs major work, which is exactly why our team is conducting a comprehensive review for the Minister of Justice. Our own laws should not give individuals the power to silence others on subjective claims of 'harm'.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
13 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Government eyes more spending cuts as patience with economic strategy frays
Seymour said the Government was getting a few 'whispers' about the next Budget. 'Last year, we saved $115 million. [The] year before that, half a billion,' Seymour said, referring to the savings attributed to him personally. 'Let's see if we can't save more next year,' he said. Seymour said Budget 2026's savings exercise would not be 'radically different'. He said there was still wasteful spending to be found, noting the last Labour Government had inherited core public spending of about 28% of GDP and left behind a state spending about 33% of GDP a year. Even accounting for increases in superannuation spending and debt servicing for the pandemic, Seymour reckoned there was still a large portion of spending that could be trimmed. Seymour said Finance Minister Nicola Willis had put pressure on Treasury to 'upgrade the supply of information', allowing better quality budgeting. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said more savings could be found. Photo / Mark Mitchell Willis said funding new spending initiatives by cutting spending the ministers deemed less essential was important, given the size of the Government's deficit, which Treasury forecasts to be $14.1b this year, or 3.1% of GDP. 'The Government's got a great track record of reprioritising funding so that we can put more investment into the things Kiwis care about: schools, hospitals, roads, police,' Willis said. Willis said the Government's first Budget found $23b in savings and the second found $21b. These figures are calculated over multiple years. 'What the number will be in our next Budget is yet to be worked out,' Willis said. When asked whether a similar dollar figure of savings could be found for the 2026 Budget, Willis said, 'we'll see'. Willis said she did not think all the low-hanging fruit had been found when it came to savings. 'There are always areas where we should be demanding better value for taxpayers' money and I always ask myself, 'can I really justify spending that money when a New Zealand household could probably do with it in their wallet?'' Willis said. Willis said each Budget approach was similar. She sat down with the Prime Minister and her associate Finance Ministers, Seymour, Chris Bishop, and Shane Jones. 'We sit down together. We identify key themes where we think that there is room to find value. We also identify programmes of work that we think ministers should undertake to find savings,' she said. Willis said it was 'far too soon' to describe the nature of the savings programme. It is not uncommon for a Government to cut spending it no longer thinks is valuable, to pay for something else. The last Finance Minister, Grant Robertson, also undertook reprioritisation exercises prior to his budgets although these were far smaller in quantum. In 2018, word of Labour's Budget 2019 reprioritisations exercise leaked to National, who accused Labour of covert spending cuts. Asked whether three successive savings programmes in a row risked prolonging negative economic sentiment, Willis accused people who made that argument of being 'fiscally and economically ignorant'. 'We have one of the largest deficits in the OECD, which is to say we are spending billions more than we are earning as a country. Compared to many countries around the world, we are in a more deficit position than they are. 'To say that when we are running a deficit ... is economically ignorant. I have heard that ignorance from our political opponents. They need to get a maths textbook,' Willis said. Labour leader Chris Hipkins compared Luxon and Willis to a washing machine. Photo / Mark Mitchell Earlier this year, the Herald spoke to the big three ratings agencies for their view on the public finances. New Zealand maintains a high credit rating. While the agencies said they were not alarmed with the fiscal situation at the moment, they wanted to see evidence of improvement. S&P's primary analyst for NZ, Martin Foo noted that NZ's general government balance, his company's preferred metric for whether the Government was in surplus or deficit, showed a deficit greater than 6% of GDP - putting NZ in the realm of France and the United States, countries known for running huge deficits. The Government's fiscal and economic strategy is partly to reduce the deficit to help put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates, stimulating confidence and economic recovery. Month after month of gloomy economic data, only partly offset by a recovery in the primary sector, has frayed voters' patience in that strategy, polling suggests. The most recent Ipsos Issues Monitor Poll found voters trust Labour more on the cost of living, the first time Labour has come ahead in that poll since before the last election. Voters still trust National more on the overall economy, according to that poll. In a speech ahead of his post-Cabinet press conference on Monday, Luxon said the Government needed to 'double down' on its economic strategy. 'The most important thing we can do to make you better off is to double down on our economic plan,' he said. 'Spending more, taxing more and borrowing more as Labour and other parties advocate for didn't work in the past and it won't work in the future,' Luxon said. Labour leader Chris Hipkins shot back, noting the length of Luxon's post-Cabinet speech, which he gave alongside Willis. 'I think we should start calling them Fisher and Paykel because they've got more spin than a front-load washing machine,' Hipkins said, referring to Luxon and Willis. Hipkins has come under pressure from the Government for Labour not releasing policy of its own. He defended this on Tuesday morning, saying 'we will be doing policy'. 'But some of those bigger issues around spending, borrowing, taxation, many of those will have to wait until closer to the election,' he said, noting National finalised its tax policy less than two months before the election date in 2023 - although it published a version of its tax policy about a year earlier.
NZ Herald
15 hours ago
- NZ Herald
National MPs on how Kiwis will react to board members' pay hike, cost of living struggles
National Party MPs believe an 80% hike to the pay framework for certain Crown board members is appropriate to lure the right talent, but some are also acknowledging Kiwis facing cost of living issues may struggle with the idea. The increase, revealed by the Herald yesterday following the quiet
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
MP ‘ill-informed' on seesaw
A National MP has been accused of getting his facts wrong after slamming council spending on a central Dunedin seesaw. In a social media post published on Thursday, Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell criticised the Dunedin City Council for wasting ratepayer money on "stupid vanity projects". He claimed the council had spent $600,000 on a seesaw as part of an inner city playground built during upgrades to George St. "The message to local government is clear: get your costs under control — Kiwis are doing it tough." "I mean, how stupid do you have to be," he asked. Reaction from social media commenters was mixed — some were supportive while others pointed out the overall playground feature had cost less than $600,000 in total. The council said the play space cost $586,000 and also featured "talk tubes", benches and shading and soft-fall surfaces. Invoices showed the three seesaws in the playground — a 7m-long, 12m-long and inclusive seesaw — together cost $244,700. The council had received a $250,000 donation from lead contractor Isaac Construction to go towards the cost of the playground. Cr Christine Garey said Mr Uffindell was "ill-informed" — "but that's not a surprise". Children and families loved the playground feature of George St, she said. "This decision was made long before the cost of living crisis that was caused by his government. "Did he talk about the huge cost of government regulation imposed by central government on local government? I doubt it." Cr Andrew Whiley said he and Mr Uffindell attended the same event when the MP was in Dunedin earlier this month where the topic of the seesaws came up. "I quickly said, 'well, actually, councillors never signed off on the seesaws'," Cr Whiley said. "I made it quite clear to him that actually councillors had not seen or had the ability to review that prior to it being installed and being signed off by council staff." Councillors had seen and noted a plan for the play space at an extraordinary planning and environment committee in April 2022, but it did not include the seesaws, Cr Whiley said. "I never basically understood [how] the playground went from what was in our papers to being what it was finished." Council central city plan project director Glen Hazelton said councillors voted to note the report in 2022, "including the details on the play space". The council was "disappointed" by Mr Uffindell's comments. "The total cost of the entire play space on George St was $586,000," he said. "At less than 1% of the total budget for George St, we believe the investment in a more people-friendly space is good value for money." "A number of new retail tenants coming to George St have noted the improvements that make the area more people-friendly, including the play space, as the reason for relocating," Dr Hazelton said.
