So what were the out comes ?Wow. More shit coming out about the pay equity boondoggle. What a disgrace
A significant point of contention has been why and how the job of a social worker could be compared to that of an air traffic controller, for pay equity purposes.
The Post
www.thepost.co.nz
Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics
- Thread starter wizard of Tauranga
- Start date
The utterly toxic right
www.thepost.co.nz
Sunday Star-Times investigation reveals how keyboard warriors have found a home in NZ First’s orbit, reviving attack-style politics, report National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance and investigative reporter Charlie Mitchell.
The tip-off came from out of the blue.
A small-town journalist received a phone call from a man offering a salacious scoop. A young, self-styled journalist with a combative online presence had secretly uploaded explicit videos of himself to a porn site.
“I wasn't quite sure what he was looking for from me,” the journalist told the Sunday Star-Times.
“I think he thought that if there was enough information that he could feed me — juicy information — then he would expect something from me”.
The journalist hung up, unsettled by the conversation. He chose not to follow up. But in the days afterwards, it became clear the tip was linked to a loosely coordinated, fiercely partisan network of online accounts that had formed in the orbit of NZ First.
The caller was Rhys Williams, a Taranaki businessman behind an influential X (formerly Twitter) account. The account had previously targeted Green MP Benjamin Doyle, sparking a wave of backlash that at times veered into personal abuse.
Rhys Williams speaks at the Unsilenced conference in Wellington.
Supplied
Williams had apparently set his sights on an online foe: a 25-year-old university student behind a fringe news website that mocked Williams and others like him as “cookers”. The student had antagonised Williams and others for months, often in harsh and insulting terms.
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Soon after the tip-off call, rumours swirled online. An X account belonging to Inflection Point — a group linked to Williams — posted a screenshot of a now-deleted account on a porn site allegedly associated with the student.
Others joined in. Sean Plunket, founder of The Platform media outlet, who has tangled with the student online, taunted him with a cryptic jab on X. Political operative Glenn Inwood and property developer Vlad Barbalich — both known associates of Williams —shared similarly veiled references. There appeared to be foreknowledge.
That evening, Williams named the student publicly.
“Most reading this will not know who he is,” Williams wrote.
The Platform founder Sean Plunket.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
“What he is is the product of the far left [...] a 25-year-old who is unable to control his compulsions, or moderate his emotional response or understand consequences.”
He accused the student of uploading “illegal and disgusting” videos, and implied the porn account had been deleted only after the student realised it would be exposed.
(The Sunday Star-Times has reviewed an archived version of the porn account. While incomplete, much of the content does not appear to be illegal, though some videos show behaviour, including public masturbation, that could potentially be prosecuted.)
The online reaction was swift and vicious. Commenters called the student “sick” and “deranged”. One post, shared by Williams, likened him to serial killer Ted Bundy.
Inwood and Barbalich shared the post, as did Cameron Slater, the former Whale Oil blogger once synonymous with such attacks.
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Williams' post included a video that showed two of the student's associates. One has since filed a complaint with police.
Political blogger Cameron Slater pictured in 2016.
David White / Stuff
The other was Matthew Tukaki, a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office.
Tukaki said he had arranged mental health support for the student and was worried about his wellbeing.
“This is a serious matter. I think he is at risk of self-harm.”
The student declined to comment on the record, but has continued posting online without directly addressing the accusations.
Williams, meanwhile, is defiant. He has continued attacking the student, calling him a “creep” and “unhinged”.
He did not respond to questions from the Star-Times, instead mocking the reporters online as “pathetic gutter retards” working on a “bullshit story from a trio of fantasists and an assortment of other gimps”.
Matthew Tukaki is a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
What initially appeared to be an ugly online feud was, in fact, a window into something larger: an informal but potent alliance of influencers clustered around NZ First.
Some were once critics of Winston Peters, the party’s leader. Others had re-emerged from the political wilderness. They shared an opposition to pandemic-era policies, hostility towards the political establishment, and a belief that NZ First was the most viable path to power.
The result is a loose ecosystem that promotes the party’s message and targets its enemies, all distant from NZ First, which in exchange receives a volunteer army of online combatants.
A conference with no name
One key event in this evolving alliance was a May 2024 conference called “Unsilenced”.
Held at Tākina in central Wellington, it promised to challenge “gender indoctrination” and “medicalisation of our children”. It drew hundreds of protesters; Te Papa, which runs Tākina, raised a rainbow flag in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community.
But the conference’s roots trace back to a different event entirely: a campaign speech booked for NZ First.
Emails released under the Official Information Act reveal the booking was made in August 2023 by The S.B. Group, a third party promoter registered by Glenn Inwood — a veteran political operator and a former lobbyist for the Japanese whaling industry.
Glenn Inwood, a former spin-doctor for the whaling industry, speaks at a protest in 2022.
Facebook
He has long worked in the shadowy world of influence campaigns, specialising in astroturfing, creating the appearance of grassroots support for corporate causes. More recently, he ran Resistance Kiwi, a pseudo-news outlet that promoted conspiracy theories about vaccines during the pandemic.
At the time of the booking, Inwood had walked away from a short-lived stint with Democracy NZ, led by ex-National MP Matt King. He instead gravitated toward NZ First, which he saw as the most reliable political vessel for his chosen issues.
That included hosting Shane Jones, an old friend, at his home in Wellington. In a letter posted on Telegram, Inwood described a “gradual awakening" in Peters’ views. By August 2023, Inwood was fully on-board with NZ First, seemingly behind the booking request for the speech.
(In a statement, Peters said Inwood has “never had any involvement with NZ First campaign events or strategy”. Inwood did not respond to a request for comment.)
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
The speech was booked, then abruptly cancelled when NZ First pulled out at late notice. The venue fee — understood to be around $6000 — had to be paid, but could be used as credit for another event in the same financial year.
There were various attempts to use the credit. NZ First was “exploring the possibility” of holding its annual convention in Wellington, one email to Tākina said. When Tākina staff asked for details, NZ First’s party president, Julian Paul, responded directly. Still, no formal contract was signed.
By mid-April, with the credit set to expire, a room was hastily secured for the following month. It was booked under the same name —The S.B. Group — but this time for a different purpose.
The event needed a name. The S.B. Group offered “Conservatism in 21st Century NZ” as a placeholder.
“The event is not now specifically an NZ First conference but will be linked in some way,” the group said.
“I don’t think it makes for a huge issue right now.”
New Zealand First president Julian Paul.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
A quiet backer
Inwood was joined by an unlikely ally.
Vlad Barbalich, a softly-spoken property developer who avoids the limelight, has deep pockets and no public record of political activism.
That changed during the pandemic, where he joined the anti-mandate occupation of Parliament’s front lawn. He became close with Inwood and joined Democracy NZ, becoming a board member and financial backer before the party’s implosion.
Like others, Barbalich was sceptical about NZ First, writing online that Peters “can never be trusted”.
“You should be nowhere near our Parliament with the damage you created,” he wrote in a tweet to Peters in July 2022.
Before the 2023 election, he had a change of heart. He became one of the largest individual donors of the campaign, contributing more than $200,000 between NZ First and some of its candidates, either personally or through entities linked to a family member.
Emails show Barbalich joined Inwood in a meeting with Tākina about conference costs. On the day of the event, multiple speakers thanked him by name from the stage.
Rhys Williams was one of the organisers of the Inflection Point event in Wellington last year. Some critics described it as “hostile to trans people.”
Supplied
Another key figure was Rhys Williams. In a since-deleted interview on The Platform, Williams confirmed that his group, Inflection Point, had taken over the booking from the S.B. Group.
By this point, Williams had no public profile. But his anonymous X account had become notorious among political observers for its feverish tone and fondness for personal attacks, usually directed at political rivals of Winston Peters and NZ First.
He was not formally a party member, but claimed to have attended its annual convention. He took credit for influencing one of its policies — the removal of the relationship and sexuality education curriculum from schools, which later appeared in the coalition agreement.
(Williams “plays no role in NZ First”, Peters said in a statement.)
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki speaks at an anti-mandate protest in 2021.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Yet even as the event neared, its nature remained murky to Tākina staff. Ten days prior, a complaint arrived from a concerned member of the public who had seen a website for an event called Unsilenced. The site listed Destiny Church’s Brian Tamaki as a speaker.
Tākina staff had no record of this event. On the specified date, they had a conference for women in medicine and another for a building company.
The mistake appears to be due to the name: In the venue hire agreement, Unsilenced was called “The S.B. Group: New Zealand First conference”. The S.B. Group shares a name with an unrelated construction company.
Staff tried to look at the Unsilenced website, which was blocked by content filters on the office wi-fi. One employee got in and concluded it appeared to be “anti-trans content”. It led to a flurry of internal discussion.
A protest against Brian Tamaki in Christchurch two weeks before Unsilenced.
Iain McGregor / The Press
While far removed from the campaign rally that had originally been booked, there was still a political connection. One email says Peters was meant to attend the conference, but had to travel to Melanesia instead. He was swapped for Jones, who was named on the event’s runsheet a week beforehand.
In the end, MP Tanya Unkovich filled in, giving a speech she had hastily written on the back of a boarding pass. She was the only sitting MP to attend.
(Peters said NZ First played no role in planning the event, and did not endorse it. He said all MPs attend a wide range of events, and did not necessarily agree with every point of view expressed at those events.)
Outside the venue, protesters gathered. Tamaki arrived flanked by private security. Tensions boiled over when a brown, foul-smelling liquid — possibly faeces — was thrown at his security team, striking a police officer instead. The smell lingered all day.
Security guards stand outside the entrance to the Inflection Point NZ conference in May 2024.
MONIQUE FORD / The Post
Inside, the conference went ahead as planned. Speakers commiserated over what they call gender ideology, with some recounting personal stories, including a speaker who had de-transitioned.
Others were more extreme. Tamaki called “transgenderism” a “satanic sickness”. British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, appeared in a pre-recorded message calling trans-rights activists “fetishists” and “perverts”.
The event had begun as a re-purposed campaign booking. By the end, it had become a rallying point for a politically charged cultural backlash that NZ First would tap into.
From fringe to political force
The Unsilenced conference was the product of money and coordination between political actors who, while not officially part of NZ First, had found a home in its orbit.
Since then, two of its central organisers, Glenn Inwood and Vlad Barbalich, have turned their focus to local politics. They are behind Better Wellington, a group supporting a slate of candidates in the upcoming local government elections.
NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich spoke at the Unsilenced event.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
According to one local government source, the duo are fixtures at a bar in Khandallah, where they discuss strategy. Barbalich has put $50,000 into Better Wellington, which is using one of his properties as a campaign headquarters.
The same source said their alliance with NZ First had been strategic: “I think if there was a more extreme version [of the party], they would go with that, if it was viable.
“They're smart enough to know this is how they can have more of an influence.”
Rhys Williams, meanwhile, has continued to use his anonymous X account as a tool for attack politics. When he drew attention to BibleBeltBussy, the Instagram account operated by Green MP Benjamin Doyle, Peters was the first political figure to pick up the thread.
Green MP Benjamin Doyle holds a press conference in April.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Peters alluded to “swirling allegations and innuendo online” about Doyle, without acknowledging that the innuendo originated from his own supporters.
It was, in many ways, a revival of an older form of politics — one that Peters himself had once condemned.
In 2014, journalist Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics revealed how politicians and PR operatives used Cameron Slater’s WhaleOil blog to carry out hit-jobs on rivals and critics.
Using Slater’s disinhibited personality as a blunt-force weapon, they could launder rumours and gossip about their enemies from a safe distance.
Back then, Peters was one of Slater’s favourite targets. Whaleoil articles described him as a “natural born liar” and “the unchallenged king of political corruption”, who had “lived his life in the public trough”. Slater once offered to pay $5000 to anyone who made a citizen’s arrest on Peters.
Nicki Hager launches his book Dirty Politics at Unity Books, Wellington, in 2014.
Ross Giblin / Dominion Post
After the release of Dirty Politics, Peters called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its findings, praising Hager for “shining some sunlight on dirty, underhand politics”. Slater disappeared from the public eye, plagued by legal and health troubles.
But a decade later, Slater has re-entered the political scene — not as Peters’ adversary, but as an unlikely ally.
Slater has interviewed Peters at least seven times in recent years, typically with a friendly tone. He has said online he voted for NZ First and was with Peters on election night.
More recently, Peters was the first guest on Slater’s podcast — a long, friendly conversation. Peters will deliver a ‘roast’ at an upcoming party in Slater’s honour.
Winston Peters was the first guest on Cameron Slater's podcast show, sitting down for an 84 minute interview.
Screenshot
In a 2023 broadcast on his former Reality Check Radio show, Slater described having conversations “on the quiet” with Peters, suggesting issues they discussed were later echoed in Peters’ public statements. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, I’d better go and have a few more of these chats with Winston,’” Slater joked.
(Peters would not confirm or deny these claims: “Who Cameron Slater interviews or what he claims is his business”.)
Slater, for his part, describes his newfound views about Peters as a correction of old misconceptions.
“He's a very interesting character and I've found that spending time with him is very fascinating,” Slater said in a written response to questions.
“Almost everything I believed about Winston Peters in the past was as a result of decades of smearing of Winston by the National Party.
“I take people as I find them, and I find Winston engaging. He certainly doesn't hold grudges like media have suggested, otherwise why would he speak to me.”
Winston Peters and Cameron Slater on election night in 2023.
Screenshot
He denied being an informal adviser, “or indeed anyone who influences” NZ First. He despises party politics and anyone who engages in partisan politics.
Yet when online attacks are launched against the party’s enemies — whether MPs like Doyle, or anonymous critics like the 25-year-old student — Slater is often willing to join in with the same slash-and-burn style he helped pioneer.
Asked about such attacks, Slater had little sympathy.
He described the student as a “nasty left wing smear merchant”, suggesting he was simply reaping what he had sown.
His description of Doyle is too defamatory to publish
The Post
www.thepost.co.nz
Sunday Star-Times investigation reveals how keyboard warriors have found a home in NZ First’s orbit, reviving attack-style politics, report National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance and investigative reporter Charlie Mitchell.
The tip-off came from out of the blue.
A small-town journalist received a phone call from a man offering a salacious scoop. A young, self-styled journalist with a combative online presence had secretly uploaded explicit videos of himself to a porn site.
“I wasn't quite sure what he was looking for from me,” the journalist told the Sunday Star-Times.
“I think he thought that if there was enough information that he could feed me — juicy information — then he would expect something from me”.
The journalist hung up, unsettled by the conversation. He chose not to follow up. But in the days afterwards, it became clear the tip was linked to a loosely coordinated, fiercely partisan network of online accounts that had formed in the orbit of NZ First.
The caller was Rhys Williams, a Taranaki businessman behind an influential X (formerly Twitter) account. The account had previously targeted Green MP Benjamin Doyle, sparking a wave of backlash that at times veered into personal abuse.
Rhys Williams speaks at the Unsilenced conference in Wellington.
Supplied
Williams had apparently set his sights on an online foe: a 25-year-old university student behind a fringe news website that mocked Williams and others like him as “cookers”. The student had antagonised Williams and others for months, often in harsh and insulting terms.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with Stuff
Soon after the tip-off call, rumours swirled online. An X account belonging to Inflection Point — a group linked to Williams — posted a screenshot of a now-deleted account on a porn site allegedly associated with the student.
Others joined in. Sean Plunket, founder of The Platform media outlet, who has tangled with the student online, taunted him with a cryptic jab on X. Political operative Glenn Inwood and property developer Vlad Barbalich — both known associates of Williams —shared similarly veiled references. There appeared to be foreknowledge.
That evening, Williams named the student publicly.
“Most reading this will not know who he is,” Williams wrote.
The Platform founder Sean Plunket.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
“What he is is the product of the far left [...] a 25-year-old who is unable to control his compulsions, or moderate his emotional response or understand consequences.”
He accused the student of uploading “illegal and disgusting” videos, and implied the porn account had been deleted only after the student realised it would be exposed.
(The Sunday Star-Times has reviewed an archived version of the porn account. While incomplete, much of the content does not appear to be illegal, though some videos show behaviour, including public masturbation, that could potentially be prosecuted.)
The online reaction was swift and vicious. Commenters called the student “sick” and “deranged”. One post, shared by Williams, likened him to serial killer Ted Bundy.
Inwood and Barbalich shared the post, as did Cameron Slater, the former Whale Oil blogger once synonymous with such attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertise with Stuff
Williams' post included a video that showed two of the student's associates. One has since filed a complaint with police.
Political blogger Cameron Slater pictured in 2016.
David White / Stuff
The other was Matthew Tukaki, a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office.
Tukaki said he had arranged mental health support for the student and was worried about his wellbeing.
“This is a serious matter. I think he is at risk of self-harm.”
The student declined to comment on the record, but has continued posting online without directly addressing the accusations.
Williams, meanwhile, is defiant. He has continued attacking the student, calling him a “creep” and “unhinged”.
He did not respond to questions from the Star-Times, instead mocking the reporters online as “pathetic gutter retards” working on a “bullshit story from a trio of fantasists and an assortment of other gimps”.
Matthew Tukaki is a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
What initially appeared to be an ugly online feud was, in fact, a window into something larger: an informal but potent alliance of influencers clustered around NZ First.
Some were once critics of Winston Peters, the party’s leader. Others had re-emerged from the political wilderness. They shared an opposition to pandemic-era policies, hostility towards the political establishment, and a belief that NZ First was the most viable path to power.
The result is a loose ecosystem that promotes the party’s message and targets its enemies, all distant from NZ First, which in exchange receives a volunteer army of online combatants.
A conference with no name
One key event in this evolving alliance was a May 2024 conference called “Unsilenced”.
Held at Tākina in central Wellington, it promised to challenge “gender indoctrination” and “medicalisation of our children”. It drew hundreds of protesters; Te Papa, which runs Tākina, raised a rainbow flag in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community.
But the conference’s roots trace back to a different event entirely: a campaign speech booked for NZ First.
Emails released under the Official Information Act reveal the booking was made in August 2023 by The S.B. Group, a third party promoter registered by Glenn Inwood — a veteran political operator and a former lobbyist for the Japanese whaling industry.
Glenn Inwood, a former spin-doctor for the whaling industry, speaks at a protest in 2022.
He has long worked in the shadowy world of influence campaigns, specialising in astroturfing, creating the appearance of grassroots support for corporate causes. More recently, he ran Resistance Kiwi, a pseudo-news outlet that promoted conspiracy theories about vaccines during the pandemic.
At the time of the booking, Inwood had walked away from a short-lived stint with Democracy NZ, led by ex-National MP Matt King. He instead gravitated toward NZ First, which he saw as the most reliable political vessel for his chosen issues.
That included hosting Shane Jones, an old friend, at his home in Wellington. In a letter posted on Telegram, Inwood described a “gradual awakening" in Peters’ views. By August 2023, Inwood was fully on-board with NZ First, seemingly behind the booking request for the speech.
(In a statement, Peters said Inwood has “never had any involvement with NZ First campaign events or strategy”. Inwood did not respond to a request for comment.)
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
The speech was booked, then abruptly cancelled when NZ First pulled out at late notice. The venue fee — understood to be around $6000 — had to be paid, but could be used as credit for another event in the same financial year.
There were various attempts to use the credit. NZ First was “exploring the possibility” of holding its annual convention in Wellington, one email to Tākina said. When Tākina staff asked for details, NZ First’s party president, Julian Paul, responded directly. Still, no formal contract was signed.
By mid-April, with the credit set to expire, a room was hastily secured for the following month. It was booked under the same name —The S.B. Group — but this time for a different purpose.
The event needed a name. The S.B. Group offered “Conservatism in 21st Century NZ” as a placeholder.
“The event is not now specifically an NZ First conference but will be linked in some way,” the group said.
“I don’t think it makes for a huge issue right now.”
New Zealand First president Julian Paul.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
A quiet backer
Inwood was joined by an unlikely ally.
Vlad Barbalich, a softly-spoken property developer who avoids the limelight, has deep pockets and no public record of political activism.
That changed during the pandemic, where he joined the anti-mandate occupation of Parliament’s front lawn. He became close with Inwood and joined Democracy NZ, becoming a board member and financial backer before the party’s implosion.
Like others, Barbalich was sceptical about NZ First, writing online that Peters “can never be trusted”.
“You should be nowhere near our Parliament with the damage you created,” he wrote in a tweet to Peters in July 2022.
Before the 2023 election, he had a change of heart. He became one of the largest individual donors of the campaign, contributing more than $200,000 between NZ First and some of its candidates, either personally or through entities linked to a family member.
Emails show Barbalich joined Inwood in a meeting with Tākina about conference costs. On the day of the event, multiple speakers thanked him by name from the stage.
Rhys Williams was one of the organisers of the Inflection Point event in Wellington last year. Some critics described it as “hostile to trans people.”
Supplied
Another key figure was Rhys Williams. In a since-deleted interview on The Platform, Williams confirmed that his group, Inflection Point, had taken over the booking from the S.B. Group.
By this point, Williams had no public profile. But his anonymous X account had become notorious among political observers for its feverish tone and fondness for personal attacks, usually directed at political rivals of Winston Peters and NZ First.
He was not formally a party member, but claimed to have attended its annual convention. He took credit for influencing one of its policies — the removal of the relationship and sexuality education curriculum from schools, which later appeared in the coalition agreement.
(Williams “plays no role in NZ First”, Peters said in a statement.)
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki speaks at an anti-mandate protest in 2021.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Yet even as the event neared, its nature remained murky to Tākina staff. Ten days prior, a complaint arrived from a concerned member of the public who had seen a website for an event called Unsilenced. The site listed Destiny Church’s Brian Tamaki as a speaker.
Tākina staff had no record of this event. On the specified date, they had a conference for women in medicine and another for a building company.
The mistake appears to be due to the name: In the venue hire agreement, Unsilenced was called “The S.B. Group: New Zealand First conference”. The S.B. Group shares a name with an unrelated construction company.
Staff tried to look at the Unsilenced website, which was blocked by content filters on the office wi-fi. One employee got in and concluded it appeared to be “anti-trans content”. It led to a flurry of internal discussion.
A protest against Brian Tamaki in Christchurch two weeks before Unsilenced.
Iain McGregor / The Press
While far removed from the campaign rally that had originally been booked, there was still a political connection. One email says Peters was meant to attend the conference, but had to travel to Melanesia instead. He was swapped for Jones, who was named on the event’s runsheet a week beforehand.
In the end, MP Tanya Unkovich filled in, giving a speech she had hastily written on the back of a boarding pass. She was the only sitting MP to attend.
(Peters said NZ First played no role in planning the event, and did not endorse it. He said all MPs attend a wide range of events, and did not necessarily agree with every point of view expressed at those events.)
Outside the venue, protesters gathered. Tamaki arrived flanked by private security. Tensions boiled over when a brown, foul-smelling liquid — possibly faeces — was thrown at his security team, striking a police officer instead. The smell lingered all day.
Security guards stand outside the entrance to the Inflection Point NZ conference in May 2024.
MONIQUE FORD / The Post
Inside, the conference went ahead as planned. Speakers commiserated over what they call gender ideology, with some recounting personal stories, including a speaker who had de-transitioned.
Others were more extreme. Tamaki called “transgenderism” a “satanic sickness”. British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, appeared in a pre-recorded message calling trans-rights activists “fetishists” and “perverts”.
The event had begun as a re-purposed campaign booking. By the end, it had become a rallying point for a politically charged cultural backlash that NZ First would tap into.
From fringe to political force
The Unsilenced conference was the product of money and coordination between political actors who, while not officially part of NZ First, had found a home in its orbit.
Since then, two of its central organisers, Glenn Inwood and Vlad Barbalich, have turned their focus to local politics. They are behind Better Wellington, a group supporting a slate of candidates in the upcoming local government elections.
NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich spoke at the Unsilenced event.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
According to one local government source, the duo are fixtures at a bar in Khandallah, where they discuss strategy. Barbalich has put $50,000 into Better Wellington, which is using one of his properties as a campaign headquarters.
The same source said their alliance with NZ First had been strategic: “I think if there was a more extreme version [of the party], they would go with that, if it was viable.
“They're smart enough to know this is how they can have more of an influence.”
Rhys Williams, meanwhile, has continued to use his anonymous X account as a tool for attack politics. When he drew attention to BibleBeltBussy, the Instagram account operated by Green MP Benjamin Doyle, Peters was the first political figure to pick up the thread.
Green MP Benjamin Doyle holds a press conference in April.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Peters alluded to “swirling allegations and innuendo online” about Doyle, without acknowledging that the innuendo originated from his own supporters.
It was, in many ways, a revival of an older form of politics — one that Peters himself had once condemned.
In 2014, journalist Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics revealed how politicians and PR operatives used Cameron Slater’s WhaleOil blog to carry out hit-jobs on rivals and critics.
Using Slater’s disinhibited personality as a blunt-force weapon, they could launder rumours and gossip about their enemies from a safe distance.
Back then, Peters was one of Slater’s favourite targets. Whaleoil articles described him as a “natural born liar” and “the unchallenged king of political corruption”, who had “lived his life in the public trough”. Slater once offered to pay $5000 to anyone who made a citizen’s arrest on Peters.
Nicki Hager launches his book Dirty Politics at Unity Books, Wellington, in 2014.
Ross Giblin / Dominion Post
After the release of Dirty Politics, Peters called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its findings, praising Hager for “shining some sunlight on dirty, underhand politics”. Slater disappeared from the public eye, plagued by legal and health troubles.
But a decade later, Slater has re-entered the political scene — not as Peters’ adversary, but as an unlikely ally.
Slater has interviewed Peters at least seven times in recent years, typically with a friendly tone. He has said online he voted for NZ First and was with Peters on election night.
More recently, Peters was the first guest on Slater’s podcast — a long, friendly conversation. Peters will deliver a ‘roast’ at an upcoming party in Slater’s honour.
Winston Peters was the first guest on Cameron Slater's podcast show, sitting down for an 84 minute interview.
Screenshot
In a 2023 broadcast on his former Reality Check Radio show, Slater described having conversations “on the quiet” with Peters, suggesting issues they discussed were later echoed in Peters’ public statements. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, I’d better go and have a few more of these chats with Winston,’” Slater joked.
(Peters would not confirm or deny these claims: “Who Cameron Slater interviews or what he claims is his business”.)
Slater, for his part, describes his newfound views about Peters as a correction of old misconceptions.
“He's a very interesting character and I've found that spending time with him is very fascinating,” Slater said in a written response to questions.
“Almost everything I believed about Winston Peters in the past was as a result of decades of smearing of Winston by the National Party.
“I take people as I find them, and I find Winston engaging. He certainly doesn't hold grudges like media have suggested, otherwise why would he speak to me.”
Winston Peters and Cameron Slater on election night in 2023.
Screenshot
He denied being an informal adviser, “or indeed anyone who influences” NZ First. He despises party politics and anyone who engages in partisan politics.
Yet when online attacks are launched against the party’s enemies — whether MPs like Doyle, or anonymous critics like the 25-year-old student — Slater is often willing to join in with the same slash-and-burn style he helped pioneer.
Asked about such attacks, Slater had little sympathy.
He described the student as a “nasty left wing smear merchant”, suggesting he was simply reaping what he had sown.
His description of Doyle is too defamatory to publish
Investigated that bloke more than they did Doyle. No one is softer on child abuse than NZ, probably explains the stats.The utterly toxic right
The Post
Sunday Star-Times investigation reveals how keyboard warriors have found a home in NZ First’s orbit, reviving attack-style politics, report National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance and investigative reporter Charlie Mitchell.
The tip-off came from out of the blue.
A small-town journalist received a phone call from a man offering a salacious scoop. A young, self-styled journalist with a combative online presence had secretly uploaded explicit videos of himself to a porn site.
“I wasn't quite sure what he was looking for from me,” the journalist told the Sunday Star-Times.
“I think he thought that if there was enough information that he could feed me — juicy information — then he would expect something from me”.
The journalist hung up, unsettled by the conversation. He chose not to follow up. But in the days afterwards, it became clear the tip was linked to a loosely coordinated, fiercely partisan network of online accounts that had formed in the orbit of NZ First.
The caller was Rhys Williams, a Taranaki businessman behind an influential X (formerly Twitter) account. The account had previously targeted Green MP Benjamin Doyle, sparking a wave of backlash that at times veered into personal abuse.
Rhys Williams speaks at the Unsilenced conference in Wellington.
Supplied
Williams had apparently set his sights on an online foe: a 25-year-old university student behind a fringe news website that mocked Williams and others like him as “cookers”. The student had antagonised Williams and others for months, often in harsh and insulting terms.
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Soon after the tip-off call, rumours swirled online. An X account belonging to Inflection Point — a group linked to Williams — posted a screenshot of a now-deleted account on a porn site allegedly associated with the student.
Others joined in. Sean Plunket, founder of The Platform media outlet, who has tangled with the student online, taunted him with a cryptic jab on X. Political operative Glenn Inwood and property developer Vlad Barbalich — both known associates of Williams —shared similarly veiled references. There appeared to be foreknowledge.
That evening, Williams named the student publicly.
“Most reading this will not know who he is,” Williams wrote.
The Platform founder Sean Plunket.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
“What he is is the product of the far left [...] a 25-year-old who is unable to control his compulsions, or moderate his emotional response or understand consequences.”
He accused the student of uploading “illegal and disgusting” videos, and implied the porn account had been deleted only after the student realised it would be exposed.
(The Sunday Star-Times has reviewed an archived version of the porn account. While incomplete, much of the content does not appear to be illegal, though some videos show behaviour, including public masturbation, that could potentially be prosecuted.)
The online reaction was swift and vicious. Commenters called the student “sick” and “deranged”. One post, shared by Williams, likened him to serial killer Ted Bundy.
Inwood and Barbalich shared the post, as did Cameron Slater, the former Whale Oil blogger once synonymous with such attacks.
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Williams' post included a video that showed two of the student's associates. One has since filed a complaint with police.
Political blogger Cameron Slater pictured in 2016.
David White / Stuff
The other was Matthew Tukaki, a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office.
Tukaki said he had arranged mental health support for the student and was worried about his wellbeing.
“This is a serious matter. I think he is at risk of self-harm.”
The student declined to comment on the record, but has continued posting online without directly addressing the accusations.
Williams, meanwhile, is defiant. He has continued attacking the student, calling him a “creep” and “unhinged”.
He did not respond to questions from the Star-Times, instead mocking the reporters online as “pathetic gutter retards” working on a “bullshit story from a trio of fantasists and an assortment of other gimps”.
Matthew Tukaki is a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
What initially appeared to be an ugly online feud was, in fact, a window into something larger: an informal but potent alliance of influencers clustered around NZ First.
Some were once critics of Winston Peters, the party’s leader. Others had re-emerged from the political wilderness. They shared an opposition to pandemic-era policies, hostility towards the political establishment, and a belief that NZ First was the most viable path to power.
The result is a loose ecosystem that promotes the party’s message and targets its enemies, all distant from NZ First, which in exchange receives a volunteer army of online combatants.
A conference with no name
One key event in this evolving alliance was a May 2024 conference called “Unsilenced”.
Held at Tākina in central Wellington, it promised to challenge “gender indoctrination” and “medicalisation of our children”. It drew hundreds of protesters; Te Papa, which runs Tākina, raised a rainbow flag in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community.
But the conference’s roots trace back to a different event entirely: a campaign speech booked for NZ First.
Emails released under the Official Information Act reveal the booking was made in August 2023 by The S.B. Group, a third party promoter registered by Glenn Inwood — a veteran political operator and a former lobbyist for the Japanese whaling industry.
Glenn Inwood, a former spin-doctor for the whaling industry, speaks at a protest in 2022.
He has long worked in the shadowy world of influence campaigns, specialising in astroturfing, creating the appearance of grassroots support for corporate causes. More recently, he ran Resistance Kiwi, a pseudo-news outlet that promoted conspiracy theories about vaccines during the pandemic.
At the time of the booking, Inwood had walked away from a short-lived stint with Democracy NZ, led by ex-National MP Matt King. He instead gravitated toward NZ First, which he saw as the most reliable political vessel for his chosen issues.
That included hosting Shane Jones, an old friend, at his home in Wellington. In a letter posted on Telegram, Inwood described a “gradual awakening" in Peters’ views. By August 2023, Inwood was fully on-board with NZ First, seemingly behind the booking request for the speech.
(In a statement, Peters said Inwood has “never had any involvement with NZ First campaign events or strategy”. Inwood did not respond to a request for comment.)
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
The speech was booked, then abruptly cancelled when NZ First pulled out at late notice. The venue fee — understood to be around $6000 — had to be paid, but could be used as credit for another event in the same financial year.
There were various attempts to use the credit. NZ First was “exploring the possibility” of holding its annual convention in Wellington, one email to Tākina said. When Tākina staff asked for details, NZ First’s party president, Julian Paul, responded directly. Still, no formal contract was signed.
By mid-April, with the credit set to expire, a room was hastily secured for the following month. It was booked under the same name —The S.B. Group — but this time for a different purpose.
The event needed a name. The S.B. Group offered “Conservatism in 21st Century NZ” as a placeholder.
“The event is not now specifically an NZ First conference but will be linked in some way,” the group said.
“I don’t think it makes for a huge issue right now.”
New Zealand First president Julian Paul.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
A quiet backer
Inwood was joined by an unlikely ally.
Vlad Barbalich, a softly-spoken property developer who avoids the limelight, has deep pockets and no public record of political activism.
That changed during the pandemic, where he joined the anti-mandate occupation of Parliament’s front lawn. He became close with Inwood and joined Democracy NZ, becoming a board member and financial backer before the party’s implosion.
Like others, Barbalich was sceptical about NZ First, writing online that Peters “can never be trusted”.
“You should be nowhere near our Parliament with the damage you created,” he wrote in a tweet to Peters in July 2022.
Before the 2023 election, he had a change of heart. He became one of the largest individual donors of the campaign, contributing more than $200,000 between NZ First and some of its candidates, either personally or through entities linked to a family member.
Emails show Barbalich joined Inwood in a meeting with Tākina about conference costs. On the day of the event, multiple speakers thanked him by name from the stage.
Rhys Williams was one of the organisers of the Inflection Point event in Wellington last year. Some critics described it as “hostile to trans people.”
Supplied
Another key figure was Rhys Williams. In a since-deleted interview on The Platform, Williams confirmed that his group, Inflection Point, had taken over the booking from the S.B. Group.
By this point, Williams had no public profile. But his anonymous X account had become notorious among political observers for its feverish tone and fondness for personal attacks, usually directed at political rivals of Winston Peters and NZ First.
He was not formally a party member, but claimed to have attended its annual convention. He took credit for influencing one of its policies — the removal of the relationship and sexuality education curriculum from schools, which later appeared in the coalition agreement.
(Williams “plays no role in NZ First”, Peters said in a statement.)
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki speaks at an anti-mandate protest in 2021.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Yet even as the event neared, its nature remained murky to Tākina staff. Ten days prior, a complaint arrived from a concerned member of the public who had seen a website for an event called Unsilenced. The site listed Destiny Church’s Brian Tamaki as a speaker.
Tākina staff had no record of this event. On the specified date, they had a conference for women in medicine and another for a building company.
The mistake appears to be due to the name: In the venue hire agreement, Unsilenced was called “The S.B. Group: New Zealand First conference”. The S.B. Group shares a name with an unrelated construction company.
Staff tried to look at the Unsilenced website, which was blocked by content filters on the office wi-fi. One employee got in and concluded it appeared to be “anti-trans content”. It led to a flurry of internal discussion.
A protest against Brian Tamaki in Christchurch two weeks before Unsilenced.
Iain McGregor / The Press
While far removed from the campaign rally that had originally been booked, there was still a political connection. One email says Peters was meant to attend the conference, but had to travel to Melanesia instead. He was swapped for Jones, who was named on the event’s runsheet a week beforehand.
In the end, MP Tanya Unkovich filled in, giving a speech she had hastily written on the back of a boarding pass. She was the only sitting MP to attend.
(Peters said NZ First played no role in planning the event, and did not endorse it. He said all MPs attend a wide range of events, and did not necessarily agree with every point of view expressed at those events.)
Outside the venue, protesters gathered. Tamaki arrived flanked by private security. Tensions boiled over when a brown, foul-smelling liquid — possibly faeces — was thrown at his security team, striking a police officer instead. The smell lingered all day.
Security guards stand outside the entrance to the Inflection Point NZ conference in May 2024.
MONIQUE FORD / The Post
Inside, the conference went ahead as planned. Speakers commiserated over what they call gender ideology, with some recounting personal stories, including a speaker who had de-transitioned.
Others were more extreme. Tamaki called “transgenderism” a “satanic sickness”. British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, appeared in a pre-recorded message calling trans-rights activists “fetishists” and “perverts”.
The event had begun as a re-purposed campaign booking. By the end, it had become a rallying point for a politically charged cultural backlash that NZ First would tap into.
From fringe to political force
The Unsilenced conference was the product of money and coordination between political actors who, while not officially part of NZ First, had found a home in its orbit.
Since then, two of its central organisers, Glenn Inwood and Vlad Barbalich, have turned their focus to local politics. They are behind Better Wellington, a group supporting a slate of candidates in the upcoming local government elections.
NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich spoke at the Unsilenced event.
ROBERT KITCHIN / The Post
According to one local government source, the duo are fixtures at a bar in Khandallah, where they discuss strategy. Barbalich has put $50,000 into Better Wellington, which is using one of his properties as a campaign headquarters.
The same source said their alliance with NZ First had been strategic: “I think if there was a more extreme version [of the party], they would go with that, if it was viable.
“They're smart enough to know this is how they can have more of an influence.”
Rhys Williams, meanwhile, has continued to use his anonymous X account as a tool for attack politics. When he drew attention to BibleBeltBussy, the Instagram account operated by Green MP Benjamin Doyle, Peters was the first political figure to pick up the thread.
Green MP Benjamin Doyle holds a press conference in April.
ROBERT KITCHIN / THE POST
Peters alluded to “swirling allegations and innuendo online” about Doyle, without acknowledging that the innuendo originated from his own supporters.
It was, in many ways, a revival of an older form of politics — one that Peters himself had once condemned.
In 2014, journalist Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics revealed how politicians and PR operatives used Cameron Slater’s WhaleOil blog to carry out hit-jobs on rivals and critics.
Using Slater’s disinhibited personality as a blunt-force weapon, they could launder rumours and gossip about their enemies from a safe distance.
Back then, Peters was one of Slater’s favourite targets. Whaleoil articles described him as a “natural born liar” and “the unchallenged king of political corruption”, who had “lived his life in the public trough”. Slater once offered to pay $5000 to anyone who made a citizen’s arrest on Peters.
Nicki Hager launches his book Dirty Politics at Unity Books, Wellington, in 2014.
Ross Giblin / Dominion Post
After the release of Dirty Politics, Peters called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into its findings, praising Hager for “shining some sunlight on dirty, underhand politics”. Slater disappeared from the public eye, plagued by legal and health troubles.
But a decade later, Slater has re-entered the political scene — not as Peters’ adversary, but as an unlikely ally.
Slater has interviewed Peters at least seven times in recent years, typically with a friendly tone. He has said online he voted for NZ First and was with Peters on election night.
More recently, Peters was the first guest on Slater’s podcast — a long, friendly conversation. Peters will deliver a ‘roast’ at an upcoming party in Slater’s honour.
Winston Peters was the first guest on Cameron Slater's podcast show, sitting down for an 84 minute interview.
Screenshot
In a 2023 broadcast on his former Reality Check Radio show, Slater described having conversations “on the quiet” with Peters, suggesting issues they discussed were later echoed in Peters’ public statements. “I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, I’d better go and have a few more of these chats with Winston,’” Slater joked.
(Peters would not confirm or deny these claims: “Who Cameron Slater interviews or what he claims is his business”.)
Slater, for his part, describes his newfound views about Peters as a correction of old misconceptions.
“He's a very interesting character and I've found that spending time with him is very fascinating,” Slater said in a written response to questions.
“Almost everything I believed about Winston Peters in the past was as a result of decades of smearing of Winston by the National Party.
“I take people as I find them, and I find Winston engaging. He certainly doesn't hold grudges like media have suggested, otherwise why would he speak to me.”
Winston Peters and Cameron Slater on election night in 2023.
Screenshot
He denied being an informal adviser, “or indeed anyone who influences” NZ First. He despises party politics and anyone who engages in partisan politics.
Yet when online attacks are launched against the party’s enemies — whether MPs like Doyle, or anonymous critics like the 25-year-old student — Slater is often willing to join in with the same slash-and-burn style he helped pioneer.
Asked about such attacks, Slater had little sympathy.
He described the student as a “nasty left wing smear merchant”, suggesting he was simply reaping what he had sown.
His description of Doyle is too defamatory to publish
Do you have some proof of that or is this a FrankWhiteism
You're right my bad. There are 4 countries in the OECD that are worse.
New Zealand has the 5th worst child abuse record out of 31 OECD countries
Child Sexual Exploitation Facts | ECPAT NZ
Child sexual exploitation is shaped by wider systemic and social issues. Don't look away - Read the facts here.
www.ecpat.org.nz
It's frank white in his toxic world
We do have a shocking problem with child sex abuse, goes back 100 years and more. Doubt it's anything to do with woke culture or recent trans movements. It's systemic in institutions, religions and mostly a problem with hetero males. Your grandad or dodgy uncle is the most likely paedo. No idea who this Sam bloke is.
Stuff previously reported he was thought to have been under scrutiny over his conduct towards a former female non-sworn police employee many years his junior.Stuff
www.stuff.co.nz
Wonder what this guy has done?
Unbecoming conduct with a young female employee apparentlyStuff
Wonder what this guy has done?
Mate I thought you were in the intelligence communityYou're right my bad. There are 4 countries in the OECD that are worse.
New Zealand has the 5th worst child abuse record out of 31 OECD countries
Child Sexual Exploitation Facts | ECPAT NZ
Child sexual exploitation is shaped by wider systemic and social issues. Don't look away - Read the facts here.
Try again
Here is a tip - having a poor child abuse record in no way implies that the country is "soft on child abuse"
"What're you a female solipsist? Lelololoool"
-FrankWhiteisms
Andrea just called Nicky Willis a cunt, there's a real bitch war breaking out now, it's like Mean Girls
What size
Tight?Dunno but when the women are fighting I always find it's best to stay out of it mate, nothing good can come of itWhat size
It's things like this they don't find funny for some reason, it's not helping or somethingWhat size
No sense of humor.
Heather Duplicity-Allan will sort this out, she's the meanest girl of all
Poor Barry.
Update - they also found porn on his work computer.Stuff
Wonder what this guy has done?
"It's never the wrong time" -Shane Jones
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Nobody is reading this thread right now.
