The Acting Prime Minister has reluctantly accepted increased security when out in public. He told political editor Jo Moir the election campaign will have to be different to deal with the intense nature of threats against MPs.
Grant Robertson doesn’t like having a security tail when out in public but the changing nature of threats against MPs has changed that.
The Acting Prime Minister is now regularly getting advice and support from the police diplomatic protection squad (DPS) and in recent months has had security travel with him when there have been concerns about who might turn up to events.
In Whangārei in July Robertson had DPS travel with him after online chatter on Facebook raised the threat level against the senior MP.
“Those sorts of experiences are not great and DPS were there to protect me, but they can’t possibly be there to protect all politicians from any political party, so we’re all going to have to think about how we run a campaign in that environment.” - Grant Robertson
Some events on the day were impacted – one was cancelled altogether – and a group yelled obscenities at Robertson from the airport after blocking his entry, forcing his vehicle to have to wait on the tarmac before take-off.
“In the end it did play out unfortunately in the way that we thought it might.
“They disrupted a meeting I was having with some social service providers, they went to the airport to blockade the entrance, and they were screaming and yelling at me that I was a paedophile, and various other revolting things,” Robertson said.
“Those sorts of experiences are not great and DPS were there to protect me, but they can’t possibly be there to protect all politicians from any political party, so we’re all going to have to think about how we run a campaign in that environment.”
Robertson’s comments were in response to an article by Newsroom where Labour’s campaign chair Megan Woods raised concerns about next year’s general election and the ability to debate political ideas without it dividing the nation.
Woods told Newsroom she hoped conspiracy views didn’t become part of the candidate landscape at the election.
“I hope that as a New Zealander just as much as the campaign chair for Labour because I just don’t think that’s where we want to be as a country or a people in terms of that level of division and polarisation within our country.
“This is something we are going to have to think about as we think about what the campaign will look like,” Woods told Newsroom.
It is roughly 12 months out from the election and Robertson acknowledges some aspects of the campaign may look different, including public events and walkabouts.
“It’s going to be very challenging with some of that environment of misinformation and disinformation, but I reiterate we have to have policy debates and we will.
“But how do we make sure we can still get out there, still listen to people, still meet people?”
Robertson has been an MP for 14 years and worked at Parliament for two decades but says the threats are now “greater, more often and more intense”.
The Whangarei incident isn’t the first of that nature in Northland.
In January, Jacinda Ardern’s vehicle was forced to drive onto the footpath to avoid protesters in a car trying to cut them off.
Senior Labour Minister Chris Hipkins has also had his and his family’s security increase after threats made against him, particularly while he oversaw the Covid-19 response.
Robertson pointed to dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of Covid, and the three-week occupation of Parliament grounds by protesters, as a turning point for when the security threats started to ramp up.
Cabinet minister Willie Jackson told Newsroom he would have happily gone out to the protesters during the occupation and felt safe, but appreciated some MPs didn’t.
He offered to walk home his female colleagues, some of whom felt uneasy about leaving the building in the evening during that period at Parliament.
“You only need a few nuts, and it upsets it for everyone,” Jackson said.
When it comes to the campaign next year, political parties will be relying on event organisers to be stricter in who can access MPs and looking out for potential threats.
Robertson says he doesn’t want to see a situation where those doing the threatening win.
“We’ve got to make sure we still campaign, but we’ve got to think about it differently.”
