No government should have the right to decide what speech is or is not appropriate for its citizens to speak. I implore the New Zealand Parliament to take after the United States 1st ammendment and implement this into our bill of rights:

Parliament shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Any current laws that violate this principle should be repealed, this would include any and all hate speech laws. Hate speech is just free speech an individual subjectively disagrees with and will be protected under this ammendment. An incitement of violence that is specific, unequivocal and unconditional enough to make victims reasonably fear for their safety would of course not be included under this and would be charged as intimidation.

In my personal opinion I find prejudice of others based on race or sex distasteful and so does the vast majority of our population, however having these opinions no matter how horrid should not result in legal liability. It is not the governments job to teach its citizens how to think, their job is to protect its citizens right to think and discuss any topic openly without fear of legal repercussion. In order for our country to preserve our individual freedom the National and Labour party must work together to change our bill of rights. Regardless of your own political or religious opinion this affects us all, dont wait for your free speech to be threatened protect it now for yourselves and for future generations.

Please share this with your friends, family and work colleagues. Let our voices be heard.