A Christmas present from the courthouse for NZ ‘progressives’.

Will 'progressives' learn that the belief they occupy the moral high ground doesn't give them immunity to refer to people with any pejoratives they like?

Helen Houghton, leader of the Conservatives.NZ political party filed defamation action against the below three entities on 20th Dec 2024 -

• Byron C Clark, author of the book titled ‘Fear’, about (supposed) far-right and alt-right extremism in NZ, in which he names Helen Houghton.

• HarperCollins, Byron Clark’s book publisher

• The Spinoff news, where Byron Clark has been a regular guest writer.

Helen is not allowed to discuss details of the lawsuit, of course, but here’s what I know from conversations with her prior to the filing of the defamation action, and my own internet-digging.

In February 2023, HarperCollins published Byron Clark’s book ‘Fear’, described as “The must-read gripping new book about New Zealand's hostile underworld of extremists.” Amongst others, he names Helen Houghton in it.

Although I haven’t read the book myself, it did get a lot of attention from all the usual ‘right side of history progressives’ – the inverted commas bit said with tongue firmly in cheek. This attention included an article in The Spinoff, written by Clark, titled ‘Women and the alt-right in New Zealand’, with the subtitle: “An abridged excerpt from Byron C Clark’s new book Fear: New Zealand’s hostile underworld of extremists.” In this abridged excerpt, it appears he names Helen Houghton in association with the words ‘alt-right’ and ‘far-right’.

A review of ‘Fear’ in The Conversation notes that Clark never defines the terms alt-right, far right, and extremism in his book, and uses them interchangeably. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, alt-right refers to those who “espouse extremist beliefs and policies typically centered on ideas of white nationalism”; far-right refers to “people whose political views are the most conservative”; and extremism is akin to “radicalism”. Ironically, Clark is not only an author of a book which uses undefined pejorative terms in association with named people, but also teaches and presents courses how to spot mis/disinformation. In August 2023, he was a guest speaker on this subject at a Christchurch WORD Festival event called “MASTERCLASS: BYRON C CLARK: INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH”.

Reality Check Radio show host, Dieuwe de Boer, also noted in his complaint to the NZ media Council about the afore-mentioned Spinoff article, that Clark does not provide a definition in his article for alt-right, but cites a Merriam-Webster dictionary definition that its core belief is white nationalism -

The complainant says that the article lists several women by name, and others by association, as leaders of the New Zealand alternative right movement. He cites a Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of alternative right, that its core belief is white nationalism. He also says that no definition is given by the author of the term alternative right or alt-right, and no evidence is provided of the women named being white nationalists; or of them being contacted for their response to assertions in the article. He also argues against other ideas and assumptions expressed in the article.

The NZ Media Council didn’t uphold the complaint, and in its summary stated that “In the Council’s view, the presentation of the extract clearly signalled that it was the views of the author of a newly published book; and although some facts are contested, there is no clear information to suggest that the excerpt contained materially inaccurate facts.”

Helen has recently passed her exams as a third-year law student, and plans to represent herself in the defamation action she has filed. There is a small possibility of being ordered to pay some costs to the defendants if she loses, and the defendants may try for ‘security costs’ as a tactic.

I first heard of Helen back in 2020, when a random Facebook comment mentioned an oral submission she’d made to the Education and Workforce Committee. Helen was a primary school teacher then, and was disturbed by the increasing amount of gender ideology teachings she was both witnessing and hearing about in NZ schools. She created a Parliamentary Petition against that in 2019, which was picked up by former National MP, Joanne Hayes. The Education and Workforce Committee’s final report said, to paraphrase, that teaching gender ideology in schools was fine.

Since then, Helen has joined with me in meeting with the Christchurch City Council against their policy of allowing men who say they’re women into women’s sessions at public pools, we have attended rallies together, talked on Reality Check Radio together about Sall Grover’s speaking event in Christchurch, and had a civil discussion around our differences of belief on abortion and Covid. What we have found from all this is that we trust and like each other, and can collaborate despite those differences.

Helen is a strong, moderately conservative woman, and I do not consider her to be any of the extreme or abhorrent things Byron Clark associates her with in his book. I don’t know when the court hearing will be, but I will follow its progress and outcome, and report back on that when I can.