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Transcript

Introduction

Auckland university is institutionally opposed to free speech and open academic enquiry. Last week I was leaked an audio recording from a lecture delivered on Campus. In this video I analyse it.

Below are a transcript of the lecture clips, the links I refer to in this video, a copy of the questions I asked of the lecturer who delivered it, and his response.

Lecture Transcript

so what I wanna talk about now is what I see as

in many ways the turning point of

of the uh

of the 2nd Adern government

and which eventually led to

I think probably was a large uh

contributor to her resignation and not going through to

to leading the Labour party in the

in the 2023 election

was the occupation of parliament by the anti-vax

or anti-vax mandate protesters

which obviously ended very

very violently as you see in these images

and what happened with that

quite apart from turning a lot of people against

against the the government because

you know quite frankly

they completely mishandled it

and my personal opinion

they should have just cleared them out in the first day

because yes

you definitely have a right to protest and

and protest the Parliament grounds

you do not have a right to set up an encampment in in

in Parliament's grounds and as it grew and and

and make more disruption

for the people who lived in central Wellington

it mean it was increasingly difficult for the police

to get those people out and when it happened

it was it was incredibly violent

um yeah

I have personal experience of this cause my

my brother's stepson

was actually one of the people

who was throwing things at the police um

and he he actually got off

charges of throwing a concrete block at the police

because in my opinion quite understandably

standably the police

were quite rough and arresting him and the judge said

oh poor you um you know

you should be let off well

he's a 6 foot 4 ex Rugby prop

who threw a concrete block at the police

I'm not surprised that the cops actually

you know dealt to him but anyway

that's just a little personal anecdote about it

there were some very bad people

involved in the occupation of Parliament um

and what was quite alarming about it is

they were motivated by some very nasty online sites um

it was disinformation and misinformation um

so you had what I regard now is the mainstream uh

social media sites Facebook

Twitter um uh Instagram

YouTube but there are these smaller ones

the fringe sites like Telegram

Rumble Odyssey

Gab and Gita um and

these were the ones that were really rarcking people up

and saying that that

you know

Jabcinda was a dictator and

and your rights have been trampled upon

which was total crap

so it's misinformation and disinformation

now

there is important difference between misinformation

and disinformation misinformation is false information

that was not created but yeah

it's just crap

it was not created with intent to harm people

but dsinformation is intent is

is intended to harm a person

community or organisation

and increasingly there in that sphere

there's more disinformation than there is

there is misinformation

so as you can see with these figures

this the the the disinformation on the fringe sites

both fringe sites and the mainstream sites

just took off um

so uh

Telegram um

just huge increase Facebook as well um

one of the biggest disinformation uh

disseminators is Chantelle Baker

whose father is Leighton Baker

who was leader of the new

of the Conservative than

the new Conservative Party

and then that spit off again

and he stood as the Leighton Baker Party

in the last election um

the the

all these little parties on the right just tend

they're like the left parties last century

they just continually splinter

um

but Chantelle Baker puts up some very poisonous stuff

particularly um

at the time of the parliament occupation um

attacking Jacinda Ardern

I was here for Wayne Brown and uh

yeah he was very entertaining

I'm I'm not gonna

try and rise to his level of entertainment

but I've gotta say that on two

two particular respects he is totally full of shit

the guy doesn't know what he's talking about

I I I

I majored uh

both in in my BA and MA in politics and Russian

so I speak Russian I visited Russian many times

the Russians and Ukrainians are are different people

they speak different languages

it is not a civil war

and that war is very important for democracies

all across the world

because it is a near totalitarian dictatorship

led by Vladimir Putin

that is trying to rub out a vibrant democracy

has its problems a lot of corruption

but there's trying to rub out a vibrant

vibrant democracy in in Ukraine

and that has implications all across the world

so I am totally at odds with Wayne ffff.. Wayne Brown on that

so I just want to put that on the record um

quite apart from the fact he's clearly a narcissistic uh

person but anyway

that's enough about Wayne

um but I just thought I'd get that in there

Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_letter_on_science

https://www.thedisinfoproject.org/about

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2022/10/25/battle-against-infodemic.html

https://www.act.org.nz/universities_must_protect_free_speech_or_face_the_consequences

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about-us/about-the-university/policy-hub/policy-development-review/documents-for-consultation/draft-freedom-of-expression-and-academic-freedom-policy.html

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/attorney-general-responds-court-judgment-legality-health-orders-0

Right of reply enquiry to lecturer

Dear Dr. [REDACTED],

I hope my message finds you well. I've received a couple of audio excerpts from the lecture you delivered titled "New Zealand media and politics: How they work together and apart in the 2020s" on campus this past 22/v. I'm intending to cover it in a podcast and wish to afford you a right of reply. Below are the questions I have and the transcript is attached for your reference.

1. Do you consider argumentum ab actoritate to be a valid form of instruction? Do you consider it to be an appropriate method at academic institutions?

2. Do you consider argumentum ad hominem to be a valid form of instruction? Do you consider it to be an appropriate method at academic institutions?

3. Do you consider expletives an appropriate form of language to employ in an academic setting attended by young people?

4. You assert that during Covid "your rights have been trampled upon which was total crap so it's misinformation and disinformation."

David Clark's response of 18/viii 2020 to the High Court's decision finding government breeches of the Bill of Rights, in his position of Governor-General in the Ardern regime, that "However the court did find that there was a breach of the Bill of Rights Act in the first 9 days of the Alert Level 4 lockdown, because the original oral request for people to stay home and in their bubbles was not put in a formal order until 3 April" would seem to contradict your argument. Do you think Mr. Clark's admission might be relevant to a discussion of the Ardern regime's approach to civil rights?

5. You assert that Mayor Wayne Brown is "totally full of shit" in two respects. What are these two respects?

6. In rebuttal, to what it's not clear, you assert that Mayor Wayne Brown is "clearly a narcissistic person" while refraining from example. Would you care to (a) provide examples now and/or (b) explain how such behaviour might invalidate the positions he advocated?

7. You assert that Chantelle Baker is "one of the biggest disinformation disseminators" and that Ms. Baker "puts up some very poisonous stuff" without providing evidence of the former or examples of the latter. Would you care to provide such now?

8. You assert that Ukraine is a "vibrant democracy." Was Ukraine a vibrant democracy prior to the Maidan Revolution of February 2014?

9. Your assertion that the Ukraine conflict is "not a civil war" is not broadly shared by the 30% of Ukranian citizens who are Russian speaking. Do you think their point of view is relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?

10. Are you familiar with Zbigniew Brezezinski's The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geogrategic Imperatives?

11. There is some contention concerning guarantees the United States may or may not have made to Soviet President Mikhael Gorbachev in 1990 concerning NATO expansion eastwards. Do you think this issue might be relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?

12. You assert that Russia is a "near totalitarian dictatorship led by Vladimir Putin that is trying to rub out a vibrant democracy." A countervailing perspective might be that the Russian Federation is intervening in a civil war on behalf of a minority oppressed by a Western-backed regime committed to NATO expansion. Do you think this perspective might be relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?

13. Students attending this lecture state that failure to adhere to the prevailing orthodoxy is not tolerated by Auckland University. They believe that the consequences of offering an alternative interpretation or point of view to the material you delivered in this lecture or objecting to the manner in which it was delivered would have severe academic consequences. The consequences they anticipate include a failing grade in the course, academic censure, even their placements at Auckland University. What is your response to these concerns? Would you like to offer a guarantee that students will not face sanction for expressing them?

14. Are there any clarifications or other points you'd care to raise?

I look forward to your response.

Semper,

Simon.

Lecturer’s response

Kia ora Simon,

Thanks for your email.  As with all recordings of lectures at Waipapa Taumata Rau-University of Auckland, the recording of the guest lecture I did to the Politics 107 class is for the convenience of students enrolled in that class, and not for general distribution.

I have engaged further with several students regarding material in the lecture, both during and immediately after it, and in the following days.

There is no record of a Simon Anderson enrolled in the class, so I have nothing to say regarding your questions.

Nevertheless, I stand by all comments I made in the lecture.

Regards,

[REDACTED]