On the webpages http://mail.national.org.nz/pipermail/yn-newwrite/2003-April/000051.html and http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0304/S00163.htm the following passage appears: *

'Youthful Labour MP Darren Hughes became embroiled in a childish spat at a select committee meeting last week. At a hearing on the Government’s plans for a new supreme court he earned the ire of Men’s Rights campaigner Peter Zohrab.

Here is a rough transcript:

Zohrab: “I don’t believe putting women judges is a good idea at all, they tend to be feminist and they are extremely anti-male.”

Hughes: “That’s a real worry, isn’t it?”

Zohrab: “Yeah, it is a real worry. He’s just a complete idiot. You’re behaving like an idiot if you don’t mind my saying so. You are a complete idiot, you haven’t waited for me to give you the facts!”'

The above passage gives a largely misleading impression of the event, for the following reasons:

• I was just a member of the public making an oral submission to a Select Committee, where you expect Parliamentarians to act democratically, and give members of the public a polite and uninterrupted hearing. A member of the public is not an opposition MP in the debating chamber, after all !

• Like several other MPs in the past -- usually women, and usually from the Labour Party -- Hughes interrupted me with loud laughter. I don't think he actually said anything like “That’s a real worry, isn’t it?” -- but, even if he did, it was his interruprting me and his loud laughter that I was reacting to.

• In addition, most of the MPs didn't have their name-plates out, which denied me my democratic right to know who my representatives were in that meeting. It also meant that the person who rudely interrupted me could do so and hope that I wouldn't know who he was. I can only hope and assume that the webpages above have correctly identified him.

• So it was not a "childish spat" -- it was plain rudeness from an undemocratic Labour MP.

• I know what I am talking about when I mention women lawyers and judges. See, for example, mclachli.html , femlawst.html , womlawyr.html , and fcrtbias.html .

(*Incidentally, when I tried to access the page http://mail.national.org.nz/pipermail/yn-newwrite/2003-April/000051.html on 21 June 2013, I received the message that "The Web server you are attempting to reach has a list of IP addresses that are not allowed to access the Web site, and the IP address of your browsing computer is on this list."  So the Women's National Party is so afraid of me that they have banned me from accessing their website!)

 

See also:

• Parliamentary Cover-Up

• Undemocratic Parliamentarians

• Z-Effect shows that Feminism is about Female Supremacism, not Equality

• Are there any Human Rights in New Zealand?

• Abuse of Power and Intrusion into Privacy by New Zealand Broadcasters and by the New Zealand Parliament