www.stuff.co.nz
A protester from outside Winston Petersâ house was a speaker at the Greensâ press conference
Lloyd Burr
October 6, 2025 ⢠4:47pm
Acacia OâConnor, spokesperson for Global Movement to Gaza, at the protest outside Winston Petersâ house last week (left) and speaking at today's Green Party press conference with co-leader ChlĂśe Swarbrick.Simon Morrow
A few days ago, Acacia OâConnor was encouraging people to protest outside Winston Petersâ house. Today she fronted at a Green Party press conference. That sent the New Zealand First leader into a stinging attack on ChlĂśe Swarbrick.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has launched a blistering attack on Green Party co-leader ChlĂśe Swarbrick after her press conference this morning featured one of the protestors who was chanting outside his house last week.
That person is Acacia OâConnor, spokesperson for Global Movement to Gaza. She was outside Petersâ Auckland home on Thursday, calling him a âdisgraceâ and sharing his address to encourage others to join.
OâConnor joined the Green Party co-leaders at a press conference today where she spoke alongside
family members of the three New Zealanders detained in Israel after their Gaza aid flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/36...osition=0&utm_platform=web&utm_content=1image
Last Thursday, she was live on Instagram outside Petersâ house with dozens of pro-Palestine protesters calling on him to do more for the detainees.
âCome on down if you know where we are,â she says, before turning to a friend to ask if sheâs allowed to say which street his house is on. She then shares that address.
Protesters were using megaphones and calling Peters a âdisgrace to the countryâ and chanting âshameâ.
Acacia O'Connor was live on Instagram outside Petersâ house.Acacia O'Connor
Peters fires up
Peters blasted the protest at the time, and he did so again today after the Greensâ press conference, taking particular aim at Swarbrick.
âChlĂśe Swarbrick needs to grow up and get off her âholier than thouâ sanctimonious high horse,â he wrote on his multiple social media accounts.
âNo one wants to be lectured about morals from someone who knows nothing about whatâs going on around the world apart from her own arrogantly-manufactured ideologically-driven political soundbites.
âThe rest of us live in the real world and make real world decisions based on facts - not made up from your leftwing hyperbole, faux moral outrage, incessant hand wringing, and exaggerated eye-rolling,â the post said.
He then addressed OâConnorâs presence at the press conference.
âMaybe ChlĂśe you should call out the protesters who decided to harass me, my household, and my neighbours with loud hailers at night - instead of standing next to one of them and letting her talk at todayâs manufactured press conference.
âYour echo chamber might think youâre doing the right thing but the rest of New Zealand can see right through you.â
The Foreign Minister also criticised the three detained Kiwis as âheadline huntersâ who âknew what they were doingâ.
âNow we have to spend all of our time and taxpayer money to solve their self-righteous self-inflicted petulant problems.â
A screenshot of Petersâ rant about Swarbrick.
Swarbrick returns fire
Swarbrick said Petersâ attack on her was a desperate attempt to distract the public from his inaction on freeing the three detainees.
âThe focus of the Government should squarely be on ending that genocide, not on people's legal right to protest,â she said.
âObviously, the co-Deputy Prime Minister is trying to shift responsibility, blame and the story here, and we're not going to allow him to do that. New Zealanders have a legal right to protest. Let's focus on what it is that they were protesting.â
Did she know OâConnor was at last weekâs protest when she asked her to be part of the Green Party press conference? Swarbrick wouldnât give a definitive answer, just that she âwasn't across all of the detailsâ and âthere's a lot of different overlapâ between protest groups.
âThree New Zealanders are currently being detained by an entity that has had a well-evidenced background of human rights abuses. I would think that the Minister of Foreign Affairs would be focused on upholding the âGenocide Conventionâ and stopping a rogue state from behaving behaving illegally in international waters,â she said.
Swarbrick was asked if she believed Peters was displaying double-standards after his comments about former Green MP Benjamin Doyleâs private Instagram account, âbiblebeltbussyâ.
Doyle received threats after Peters, the
then deputy prime minister, brought that account to mainstream attention in March. Peters said some of the content could be a matter for police.
Swarbrick said today she didnât want to get into that.
âI want the story to be squarely focused on the genocide that Israel is currently perpetuating on the people of Gaza, and that our Government has a responsibility to prevent from unfolding. That is the story here, not Winston Petersâ feelings,â she says.
âI want the focus to be squarely on the fact that Israel has illegally taken hostages, and has illegally kidnapped three New Zealanders,â Swarbrick says.
The Israel Foreign Ministry has described the âsole purposeâ of the intercepted flotilla as âprovocationâ.
OâConnor said she had received reports of detainees âhaving their heads pushed against concrete, of passports being cut up, dislocated shoulders and no access to clean waterâ.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Sunday that Israel had said all the flotilla passengers were safe, and more checks would occur in the coming days.
âWe've [...] conveyed very strongly to the Israeli Government our expectation that New Zealanders and their care is ... completely consistent with international law.â
