Professor Joanna Kidman, head of a research centre on extremism, has openly criticized the governmentâs position on boot camps for youth offenders. The director of a publicly funded centre set up to combat extremism in New Zealand has called the government a âdeath cultâ that âhates childrenâ in a post on X (formerly Twitter). She has since made the post private, along with the rest of her account. Many people, however, were able to take screenshots of the post before it was hidden, with Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour replying and writing, âSome interesting views from a Jacinda Ardern and Labour appointee.â
Professor Joanna Kidman was appointed a director of the Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism by then-Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2022 as part of the governmentâs response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry report into the Christchurch terrorist attack. âI believe this centre will help us to be a more resilient, inclusive and safer Aotearoa New Zealand,â Ms. Ardern said at the time. Professor Kidman was responding to the governmentâs announcement that it would implement its pre-election promise to reintroduce youth offender âboot campsâ by mid-2024. She wrote that she could âonly assume that this government hates children, most of whom will be poor and brownâ because âthere is so much evidence that military-style youth boot camps donât work and are expensive.â
In response, Mr. Seymour stressed that he believed in freedom of speech and that the government âshould never lock someone up for their opinion,â but added that employees had to set standards with their behavior. âYou would think sheâd be smart enough to figure out that what she says in any capacity, if it relates to extreme rhetoric, is going to be a problem,â Mr. Seymour said. He added that it was âreally strangeâ that such comments came from the head of an organization funded to bring people together. âThat level of name-calling is not actually advancing the debate. It is actually advancing a more divided society which is, ironically, the opposite of what sheâs supposed to be about. When asked if Ms. Kidman should apologize for her comments, Mr. Seymour said she âdoesnât have a very good track recordâ and that he finds it easier to ignore her.
The ACT Partyâs public service spokesman Todd Stephenson has called on the board of the Centre to âmove immediately to sack the extremist in their midst.â âKidmanâs salary is paid by taxpayers via the prime ministerâs department, which means Christopher Luxon has just been delivered some potential savings on a silver platter,â he said. A spokesperson for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Bridget White, said Professor Kidman was employed by Victoria University and not a public servant. However, the Department has conveyed to the university via the Trust its concerns that Professor Kidmanâs comments may bring the center into disrepute. Victoria University said while it supports the right of academics to have an independent voice, Ms. Kidmanâs social media post âdoes not support an inclusive conversationâ and confirmed they are âdiscussing this matterâ with her. This is just the most recent example of high-level public officials taking issue with the policies of the new tri-party conservative government. Earlier this week, the Health Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Professor Lisa Te Morenga said she viewed the coalition as a âfascist-white supremacist governmentâ after Mr. Seymour raised the issue of free school lunches. In February last year, Rob Campbell resigned as Chair of Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) after using LinkedIn to publish his views on the National Party and its leader, implying they were racist. He initially argued that there was a âbig difference between being âpolitically impartialâ and being âpolitically neuteredââ and refused to apologize because there was ânothing to apologize for and nobody I need to apologize to.â However, ministerial and public pressure eventually secured his resignation. In response, Mr. Seymour said: âThe reality is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Much of the Wellington bureaucracy is openly sympathetic to the left and that is a real concern.â