Justice Minister having discussions with Speaker about MPs’ security

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Speaker Gerry Brownlee said change was “dreadfully slow”, blaming bureaucracy.

The justice minister has talked to the Speaker of the House about concerns relating to protesting or intimidation of Members of Parliament at their homes.

Paul Goldsmith confirmed he was having discussions with Speaker Gerry Brownlee about the security of MPs, particularly at their homes, and he was getting advice on the issue, with the view of potentially introducing legislation to the House.

He said that was “potentially” next year, or “possibly” this year.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is taking advice on the issue of intimidation or protests at private homes.

“There are some issues around protesting private houses, not just MPs, but private houses generally. That’s something that we are looking at very closely. There’s also a police complaints authority report that’s flowing into discussions around protests generally. So yes, we’ve got some work going,” Goldsmith confirmed this afternoon.

“There’s an issue around private houses and people being intimidated outside the place that they live and their family lives, and so that’s the broad issue.”

His comments come after The Post revealed Parliament was working with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on potential legislative changes amid the spate of threats, assaults and harassment in the past few years, which the Speaker is particularly concerned about.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable that [threats] just gets brushed off as being the work of a nutter who might not have the capability to do it,” he said. “At what point do you find out that they do?” Brownlee told The Post.

Brownlee said that since the end of last year Parliamentary Service and Parliament’s internal security services had been working with DPMC, “looking at what might be needed, by way of legislative changes, to ensure people are a little bit more protected - not just MPs, anybody elected to any public position, who should be able to carry out that work [without risk]”.

Threats and violence against the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have almost tripled over the last three years. Many of them are from conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers..

Parliamentary Service had also met with police executives.

Brownlee said threats of “horrific violence” against MPs were more frequent than they were five years ago but change was slow-moving, blaming officialdom rather than anyone in particular.

“Bureaucracy can sometimes be dreadfully slow and I’m not happy about it,” he said. “[But] whenever you’re talking about some kind of law change, all caution is taken.”

NZ First minister Shane Jones was allegedly verbally attacked and his wife Dot grabbed during an altercation at Auckland Airport on Saturday.

Dot Jones told the Herald a man had confronted them in the domestic terminal, yelling abuse at the pair, and when she went to walk away she says alleged he grabbed her by the shoulder. Brownlee said he was aware of other incidents that went unreported.

“It’s time that everybody who has a responsibility in this area, actually started to do some things that might mitigate some of the worst possible outcomes.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said New Zealand was unique in how accessible politicians were to the public, and security had to be balanced alongside that. He said the airport incident was unacceptable.

Labour leader and former prime minister Chris Hipkins said he’d received support from police in the past.

Luxon said he thought the balance between security and accessibility was right, but it was also “right to continue to look at it…we’ll look at what the Speaker’s got proposed”.

“I’m conscious that it’s a challenging environment at times… But what I’m trying to find is the balance, where I would hate to lose the accessibility to our politicians while also trying to keep them safe.”

Leader of the Opposition, Chris Hipkins, backed Brownlee on moves to increase security of MPs, saying threats and abuse had become “significantly worse” and there had been a “degree of complacency” up until now around the security of public figures in New Zealand.

“I agree with the prime minister, I don’t want to see us become one of those countries where Members of Parliament, elected officials, are so sequestered away from the public that we lose that ability to interact in the way that we do,” he said.

“Despite the fact that there is more risk than there was five years ago, I still do my own supermarket shopping, I still interact with people on the street, and I would hate to see us lose that, but we need to be more eyes wide open that there is more risk associated with that.

“I think we need to have a slightly more mature and sophisticated approach to the way we regard members of Parliament’s security that is based more on risk, and I think there has been steps towards that in the last few years, but I think we’ve still got a way to go.”

Shane Jones and his wife Dot Jones, pictured in 2018, were allegedly abused and Dot Jones grabbed by a man at Auckland Airport at the weekend.

Hipkins said he had experienced feeling unsafe and there had been “significant instances” where he’d had support from the police or other security agencies, but wouldn’t elaborate.

A police spokesperson said it wouldn’t publicly discuss security arrangements. “Police often discuss matters relating to MPs’ security with relevant parties.”

DPMC has been contacted for comment.

Spotlight on safety

The alleged abuse and assault of Shane and Dot Jones is far from an isolated incident.

Last week, Parliamentary Services confirmed it was working with police after the Green Party said its MP Benjamin Doyle had been sent death threats.

In October Richard Trevor Sivell was convicted of threatening to kill the then prime minister Jacinda Ardern.Threats made against Ardern tripled during her prime ministership, from 18 in 2019, up to 50 by 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In June last year an assault complaint was made to police in Tākaka after National MP Maureen Pugh was reportedly intimidated by protesters. A year earlier, in 2023, Labour MP Angela Roberts reported she had been slapped across the face by a man at an election debate at a Rotary Club.

In 2019 Paul Raymond Harris was jailed for punching then Green Party co-leader James Shaw as he was walking to Parliament from his home. Harris, who had wanted to talk to Shaw about abortion, had grabbed him by the lapel and punched him in the eye, striking him several times before pushing Shaw to the ground.

That same year then Green MP Golriz Ghahraman was given extra security in Parliament after threats against her intensified following comments by David Seymour that she was a menace to freedom. Seymour subsequently said “if she’s under threat…she’s got my full support and deserves the protection that every New Zealander deserves”.

Last year a University of Otago study reported 98% of MPs who took part in the study had experienced harassment including physical violence. Co-authors concluded there had been an increase in harassment and greater evidence of harm.

Most MPs who took part had experienced social media attacks, and 40% of those attacks included threats of physical violence and 14% included threats of sexual violence. Others reported threats had been made against their family members, and staff.

Last year in the United Kingdom the House of Commons established a special committee to examine threats made against MPs, amid what was described as an alarming rise in abuse of candidates, and months after a report commissioned by the Jo Cox Foundation, named for the MP who was murdered in 2016, said abuse and intimidation of MPs was a threat to democracy.