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We don't know for certain yet what lay behind the attack on @jamespeshaw, other than that the assailant was "shouting about the UN".
Regardless, it should be a cause for deep reflection from those who promoted and legitimised the UN Global Compact conspiracy theory.
Regardless, it should be a cause for deep reflection from those who promoted and legitimised the UN Global Compact conspiracy theory.
This racist, far right conspiracy theory first emerged on Breitbart and the explicitly Nazi Daily Stormer, which claimed it would "Bring 60 Million Brown People to Europe". thespinoff.co.nz/politics/02-02…
The local version of the conspiracy went that the UN, under the sway of the "Globalists", was planning to take away New Zealand's sovereignty over immigration policy. None of this was true, as legal advice from Crown Law showed.
However, the National Party, desperate to lift its polling and keen for a way to wedge NZ First against its own supporters, decided to run hard with the conspiracy theory. Here's @simonjbridges admitting the cynical politics behind it:
The @NZNationalParty claimed the compact "defers our immigration policy to the UN" and "restricts the ability of future governments to set immigration and foreign policy, and to decide on which migrants are welcome and which aren’t." national.org.nz/say_no_to_un_m…
National MP @GerryBrownleeMP stated the UN Migration Pact would lead to "pretty much open borders". newshub.co.nz/home/politics/…
National MP @SimeonBrownMP claimed the pact "hands our sovereignty on immigration policy over to the UN."
National MP @JudithCollinsMP said New Zealand signing the pact would mean giving up sovereignty over our borders.
This put National - bizarrely for a party that is pro-immigration - in the club of xenophobic, anti-immigrant and right-wing nationalist parties around the world. newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/13/361…
The kind of racist, conspiratorial hate they were stoking and validating locally did not seem to bother them either. Here is the person who ran the petition against the compact, using well-worn anti-semitic tropes to drum up support.
The fascists in the National Front were, as you would expect, right in behind it.
As well as someone really keen on "venerating the housewife" and "reinstating a spirit of Western chauvinism".
On the day of action against the UN Global Compact the National Party had the sense at least to steer clear. Which was for the best, as the Wellington rally featured at least two literal Nazis. 
This is not to say there weren't decent people who happened to have issues with the compact. My criticism is of a political party that made a deliberate strategic decision to run an outlandish alt-right conspiracy theory for cynical political reasons.
Now this guy may have some other issue with the UN. It's possible he would have done what he did without the National Party legitimising his conspiracy theory. But we have seen this play out before. This incident should be a wake up call. independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
It's no secret I'm not a big fan of the Nats. But for me this went beyond partisan politics. It goes to the heart of whether we have a functioning democracy or the toxic extremism and post-truth politics we see overseas
Let's do better. Let's not have that kind of politics here.
Let's do better. Let's not have that kind of politics here.
