Catherine Delahunty: former Green MP on the new data showing 1 in 7 Kiwis believe violence may be needed to fix the nation

There's real concern from a former Green MP over how openly people talk about committing violence. 

A new Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll shows one in four Te Pāti Māori voters and one in five ACT voters agree Kiwis may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track. 

The younger generation are more likely to agree, and they're less likely to have friends with differing political views. 

Catherine Delahunty says understanding the causes is important. 

"I think it's a sign of deepening inequality right now, that some people are really, really frustrated and feel really excluded from our society."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heller due.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
First of all, though, a worrying stat has emerged from
the latest Taxpayers Union Curier poll, which is at fourteen
percent of people, one in seven of us agree that
New Zealanders may have to resort to violence to get
the country back on track. Now. The sentiment was strongest
among ACT Party supporters and Maldi Party supporters. Catherine Della
Hunt is a former MP and she's with us now, Hi, Catherine.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hi there?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Sure does this worry you?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well? The country has got a lot of violence in
it already, so of course it worries me. What worries
me is like one in three women experienced domestic violence
in this country and we've had a shooting of fifty
one people, and so clearly that we're resorting to violence
as part of our daily lives. And I am interested
in the poll though, because it's like, why would people

(00:47):
Why are the ACT supporters thinking this when they've got
the Deputy Prime Minister as their leader, they've got access
to power, and why do they think we need violence
to get back on track. Presumably they've got people in
power who are suppose is the getting us back on track?
But I think it's I think it's the sign of deepening,
deepening inequality right now, that some people are really really

(01:09):
frustrated and feel really excluded from our society in terms
of it of the things in life that actually make
you feel part of that society. And so some of
those people might be feeling frustrated. But the question to
me is not, you know, is this what's what is
the cause of this? What are the causes for why

(01:29):
different people in different sectors of society? People are different
as the two you've mentioned, should feel that somehow violence
is going to which we already have a lot of,
is going to solve anything, and that we need to
dig into that because it really worries me even asking
that the whole question actually worries me because it's so
you know, it's so good or bad. So I find

(01:51):
polls and referendums often ask questions and you get answers
that seem really terrible. But actually if you dig deeper,
people have quite nuanced views. But many people are feeling
it's okay to say that now. Is that to do
with the Trump effect, that it's okay to talk about
violence now? And given that you know, Donald Trump is
taking his own citizens, is this encouraging people to think violence.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Is something right. So after the Charlie Kirk murder, somebody
who I know said to me, well, Charlie Kirk shouldn't
have said what he said and then he wouldn't have
got shot. It was kind of asking for it, is
what somebody said. And it feels to me like there's
a little bit of that going on, Like if you
say something that others consider to be so inflammatory or
so incendiary, then you're asking for the violence. Do you

(02:36):
see that?

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Don't know. I've experienced violent threats all my life. If
I if I, as a woman, say things that are challenging,
I've had men threaten me with violence. I don't think
it's new. I think it's just being validated by leadership.
So I think it's unacceptable to shoot somebody.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
What if it's the effect of social media right.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
In that it's won't be helping.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, Like, as you say, this is not new, It's
been going on for a long time. But maybe what
we're seeing is that if you retreat far enough into
your own echo chamber and you get your views endorsed
by other people, you may actually go so far down
that particular rabbit hole. Whatever it is you think it's
okay to become violent because of how strongly how wrong
the other person is. Could that be part of the explanation.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
I don't know. I think I think polarize and threatening
behavior has always been there. I think social media is
making it worse and people. I think if you look at, say,
for example, the group of infols, the group of young
males who believe they're entitled to women's bodies and who
believe that they can take be violent towards women to
get what they want, I think it's rape culture in

(03:43):
another form, and I think it's very worrying, and it's
and it is maximized through the Internet. So it's easy
to blame the internet, but it's definitely very very scary
when people lose touch with their with other people and
lose their relationships in society, but resorts to watching things
of the internet that that validates that kind of violence.

(04:05):
I mean, I mean the whole thing and what happened
in America and what is happening in America is society
and meltdown and it's it's really disturbing to watch it.
And the amount of violence against immigrants which is validated
by the government is not helping. So you've got this.
There's not only are people on the internet in rooms
kind of fucking up violence ideas, but there's also states

(04:25):
that are advocating for violent solutions. And I think that's really,
really scary. And I can't say that our history makes
me feel confident that we are we have we have
underpendings and violence. This country was colonized and built on violence.
The trauma of that our historical process is still with us.
And then you get the Internet kind of making it worse.

(04:46):
So yeah, it is. It is. It's important to ask
the question if you're going to have a conversation about violence,
you have to go to cause and not just the
kind of click date of statistics. What is the cause
of people talking like this? It's not just a stitch.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Catherine as good to talk to you. Thank you very much,
Catherine Della Hunting, former MP.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
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