Mt Albert tree removal: Auckland councillor is target of abuse on Facebook

Saturday, 30 November 2019

Maungakiekie-Tamaki ward councillor Josephine Bartley has been the target of online racial abuse.

Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley claims to have been the target of racist abuse on the Honour the Maunga protest group's Facebook page.

Honour the Maunga is protesting plans by the Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), which co-governs Ōwairaka/Mt Albert with Auckland Council, to cut down 345 non-native trees on the volcano and replace them with around 13,000 native trees. It is part of its plan to restore native vegetation on the maunga. Bartley is also a member of the authority.

The comments included derogatory, racist and abusive comments about Maori and Pacific Islanders. For Bartley, who has only been a councillor since 2018, it has been an unpleasant experience.

'The abusive comments were from the Honour the Maunga Facebook page before they made it private. I was disappointed that people can put that sort of stuff out in a public forum.'

Anna Radford from Honour the Maunga explains why protestors are blocking the removal of trees from Mt Albert/Ōwairaka. (Video first published November 2019.)

* Council investigates councillor's comments in Māngere Mountain tree removal row

A 96-year-old man has joined protesters in a bid to save Ōwairaka/Mt Albert's trees

* Mt Albert tree removal: Protesters labelled 'woke, entitled Pākehā' at hui

* Saving Ōwairaka/Mt Albert's trees: becoming an activist at almost 100 years old**

The Maungakiekie-Tāmaki councillor decided to post the comments, along with her own statement about them, on her own Facebook page to name and shame those responsible. But she said council staff recommended making her post private to prevent inciting more abuse.

Bartley was the subject of a recent code of conduct complaint that was dismissed by Auckland Council chief executive Steven Town this week.

The complaint followed Bartley's alleged outburst in response to a member of the public's presentation about tree removal from Māngere Mountain and other Auckland maunga.

It was initially sent to Mayor Phil Goff's office before being passed to Town to investigate. And some of the hate-filled comments appear to be related to the incident.

Auckland Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore released an official council statement on Friday afternoon to state his anger at the racist attacks on Bartley.

'Today I read a post made by one of my colleagues about the attacks she has been subjected to. It made my blood boil. These comments are hateful on every level,' Cashmore said.

'My colleague Josephine Bartley is working in the best interests of her community. She has stood up to be a representative of Aucklanders; to bring her talents, insights and kaupapa to the council table. She is to be respected. Not attacked.

'It is time to say that we do not tolerate attacks on our friends, our colleagues, our fellow Aucklanders. Racism has no place in the myriad of communities that make up our city.'

Honour The Maunga spokesperson Anna Radford said she couldn't confirm whether or not the comments were from members of the group, but earlier this week it made its Facebook page private in a bid to stop offensive remarks being posted on it.

'I'm not familiar with those specific comments,' Radford said. 'But with any public interest issue you get all sorts of people coming out of the woodwork.'

Radford said the group doesn't in anyway condone the posts.

'We delete any racist or abusive comments as soon as we become aware of them.'

Clarification: Josephine Bartley has since retracted the claim the racist comments were made on Honour the Maunga protest group's Facebook page. She has since clarified the comments were made on the personal account of a member of the protest group.