Jo is right. There are celebrations of getting 9 people elected to council in Concerned Ratepayer Canterbury, local VFF groups and Pseudo-law adjacent Challenging Councils.

ACT candidates answered the same way in the VFF Council Watch survey. Not open ended questions though. Very much seemed like someone else filled them out for them

Whether against Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Ghahraman, Ardern, other MPs, Wiles, Bloomfield, & others involved in pandemic response, transgender activists, drag queens, judges, lawyers or academics - effects of doxxing are inherently harmful, & often leads to kinetic violence or vandalism.

🚨 Auckland VFF coordinators running for council Three COs are running for council in Auckland, two are on a larger ticket. Pete Marshall is the only person standing under Concerned Ratepayers Herne Bay. Yes, another CR group. Pete is an admin on VFF Telegram channel, Hear our Voices /1

📣 VFF and NZ First in Whanganui and Rangitīkei Local Elections (with a side of Napier) As shown earlier, Baydal Furness, ahem, Rachel Woodhead is the local coordinator in Whanganui and president of Whanganui Residents and Ratepayers Association. No surprises, she's is a member of NZ First. /1

🚨 VFF & Selwyn local elections This is a big election, with eight councillors not standing for re-election, so it is up for grabs At the centre of these elections is Elizabeth Mundt. She was door-stopped in 2022 over her VFF connection. She ran Upskilling for Local Government. /1

📣 VFF and Local Election Wellington VFF's Regional CO is Dean Harris. Dean lives in the WCC area but is running for Mayor in Kapiti. Why? His answer in Upskilling for Local Democracy (U4LG) was "politics." Better Wellington was already in full swing, starting their campaign in 2024. /1

Hamilton City local council elections are in full swing. Here is a handy assessment on the candidates that I prepared earlier: open.substack.com/pub/drbex/p/... #nzpol #Hamilton #elections

In 2023, Jim Grenon supported anti-co-governance campaigner Julian Batchelor's lawsuits against TVNZ. He registered as a third-party promoter for the election on the same day as Julian. And here he is at Avi Yemini's event in Auckland.

OK, Let's start again here. 📣 VFF Involvement in Local Body Elections Thread 2 Upskilling for Local Government was a six-part webinar series that was recorded to distribute to those who couldn't attend. Here we'll look at Thames-Coromandel and Taupo VFF and U4LG attendees. /1

🚨 Voices for Freedom and Local Elections 🚨 Last local elections VFF encouraged people to run for local council. Their plan was semi-successful, electing dozens of councillors and board members. This time around, they're far more organised. Read: www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360... /1

Important to know this. Careful who you vote for! www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

Anyone surprised that Winston Peters has done this has not been paying attention

Something has been missed in the Palestine recognition talk in New Zealand. We know Seymour has been holding back recognition, but Peters has as well. To win the last election, he courted the conspiracy theorist vote, sucking the life out of other small parties. One of which was New Conservatives.

Great article on how intertwined Independent Together and Better Wellington are. Ray trying to distance IT is so see-through.

The fluoride bill is a big blow to the "freedom" movement NZ First supporters. Fluoride Free's Mary O'Brien is a NZ FIrst member, and they used that bill in their local body election questionnaire. It shows that these bills only to make supporters feel they are doing something when they aren't.

The Covid inquiry reboot is inspiring all sorts of revisionism on LinkedIn, including this little gem from Covid Plan B stalwart Ananish Chaudhuri “By October 2020, we knew that the vaccines did not prevent transmission”. This is not true, but how did he even come up with this? Thread. 1/N

This local election has unmistakably been shaped by a small group of activists that were involved with Refreshing Local Democracy in 2022, especially in Wellington. And this guy is now working as a press sec for Winston Peters.

In April 2023, @paparoa.bsky.social exposed Billy Wilson as a neo-Nazi rap artist named SaXon. x.com/Paparoa3/sta... What wasn't covered at the time was the fact that he was a coordinator for Voice For Freedom. The person who shared Billy's post was VFF Coordinator Dean Harris.

Independent Together Apart. Quit recently, now independent: Lily Brown Andrea Compton Cryptic recent message about changing colours: Dan Milward Quit before launch: Phil McConchie Melissa Moore Mike Petrie Rebecca Shepherd First campaign manager not involved (fired?): Libby Carson

THIS! Chung has been working with Better Wellington or parts of since his last campaign. He has always been this way but managed to hide it through a belief of brainlessness or innocence from media. This term has been a trainwreck thanks to him and his cronies; leaks, nasty rumours, stalemates.

Reminder: Better Wellington started in September 2022. The group's spokesperson was Glenn Inwood. They backed Ray Chung, and campaigned for him last election. Chung said in an interview with The Salient that he'd known Better Wellington for 7 years. www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-pos...

The Filthy Politics of Inwood and his Better Wellington crew are on the main stage again with Andrea Vance obtaining the "ham-fisted dirt file" from the group. www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

And when you find a wonderful candidate, boost them! Tell your friends, neighbours and family. There will be a lot of reporting on the bad, sad, mad candidates like last election. That can scare people into not voting, as they are scared they'll make the wrong choice. Give them a choice.

... and the leaders of Better Wellington & Independent Together, that want "party politics out of local government", set up third-party promoter The S.B Group (Glenn Inwood, Paul Heffernan and a VFF local coordinator) to support New Zealand First in the 2023 election.

Do you remember "Resistance Kiwi"? In mid-2024, Resistance Kiwi's website (pictured) disappeared. Inflection Point (the anti-trans conference), Better Wellington, and Ray Chung's website appeared in its place. In April 2025, they were moved to a new server and Independent Together was added.

This poor reporter! He's been Inwooded. "Inwooded": Take the bait of Astroturf PR people to spread propaganda when you think it is a scoop.

Mata @mihiforbes.bsky.social has a new report out on the (extremely) foreign and domestic influences that lie behind the rise of David Seymour’s Act and it’s a must-watch youtu.be/QLOjiiC3P1Y

There seems to be a push to keep it this way too. Phillip Crump, who is part of the takeover efforts at NZME, wants less reporting on truth in favour of balance. That diminishes the ability to talk about consequences.

We’ve traced how a network of online enforcers and political operatives orbiting NZ First is reviving a style of attack politics from the Dirty Politics era www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

This article explicitly calls for submissions from "... people who have been affected by vaccines, people who believe the vaccines were not safe", those who wreaked havoc during the pandemic. We need stories about that havoc. About how their rhetoric harmed our society. Get your submission in!

Holyheketuiteka identified as Inflection Point NZ's Rhys Williams: www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

Genuinely concerned about Jim Grenon's Herald board takeover bid. Jim not only supported Chantelle Baker in her defamation cases, and Julian Batchelor in his but also is a big fan of Avi Yemini. See him here in the blue, front and centre. He's having a great time watching the convicted wife-beater.

Jennifer Scott was so toxic she was booted from Nurses For Freedom.

NPANZ, an Australian rightwing nurses union brought to New Zealand by Voices For Freedom Wairarapa Coordinator Deborah Cunliffe, has lost its NZ executive team, including Deborah. The executive team comprised members of the anti-vax group Nurses For Freedom, which Cunliffe started in June 2022.

I know, I know, there is so much to be done, BUT... There are conspiracy theorists up and down Aotearoa holding public meetings, creating astroturf groups, and starting candidate programmes for local government. If you are even thinking about running for local council, start organising now.

Oh hello again Mr Inwood AKA Better Wellington:

The West Misunderstands Its Own Far Right: The right-wing parties poised to take power aren’t populist. They’re something much worse. foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/28/f...

Spent many hours today going through the discourse around the announcement of a new Covid-19 inquiry, or a Phase 2 to the current inquiry (depending on how one wants to see it). Studied several thousand comments on YouTube, Facebook, & Twitter to get a sense of how the announcement was received.

The Sesame Street twitter's #pridemonth tweets provide a clear timeline of the current moral panic being generated out of nothing. I've taken the biggest comment count each year as an indicator: 2019: 200 2020: 400 2021: 500 2022: 600 2023: 6,700 2024: 8,100

Online influence works in both ways and perhaps the most profound effects on society likely come from elites picking up and embracing the conspiracy theories of influencers and audiences. It’s a circular process. And social media tighten those feedback loops.

I wrote mad about whether "the misinformation panic is over." LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pulse/scream... On the Web: www.intelwire.net/weekly-brief Subscribe via email: www.intelwire.net/sign-up

This is a heads-up to some of climate change scientists/researchers who follow me here. In a specific political context, this parliament inquiry is now a target of disinfo-founded, highly motivated, template-based responses that may overwhelm other, well-considered, evidence-based public feedback .🚨

Is the party melting down, or is this a push for them to be more openly ugly? Issues "got worse" when five of their candidates were shown to be involved in conspiratorial groups/engaging in CT ideas. The party revoked some candidacies. That's a good thing, right? This seems to say it wasn't good 🤔

The goal is to cover the fees of the lawyer I have hired for a hearing, anything raised over and above what I need will be donated to the Manaaki Collective, who provide funding for home security and other help for people targeted by the far-right. ko-fi.com/byroncclark (2/2)

Writing about New Zealand's far-right has exposed me to a torrent of abuse and harassment. I am currently going through civil court to obtain a restraining order against one of this country's most notorious white supremacists. (1/2)

Our media landscape is not a level playing field, and never has been: it has biases regarding what is shown to be happening *at all,* let alone how it frames events. As you can literally see big events unfolding with little mention in the media, ask "how accurate is it most of the time?" #nzpol