"The Free Speech Union has consistently stood against the Thugs' Veto in every context. It is not free speech to use disruption and intimidation to force others into silence. This is true at Albert Park, this is true with Rainbow events. We must work to reject this tactic and preserve the right for different perspectives to be freely shared in New Zealand."

Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive, Free Speech Onion, 2025

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2502/S00360/thugs-veto-to-silence-rainbow-event-appalling.htm

#FreedomOfExpression #ThugsVeto

"That's the concern, it's what is called the 'thug's veto'... my concern is that if we can't have these kinds of discussions - and I don't even know if the right term is 'civil dialogue', perhaps sometimes it's uncivil dialogue - but if we can't have [dialogue], it plays into the hands of the extremists on all sides, and I really don't think that is a healthy place for us to be as a society..."

#JulietMoses, 2023

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018883814/parker-s-visit-poses-plenty-of-questions

#FreeSpeech #ThugsVeto #CivilDialogue #extremism