Whakatāne man Dave Stewart is demonstrating support for Jacinda Ardern as his was of standing up to the bullying she has faced as prime minister and to thank her for her public service. Photo / Troy Baker
Whakatāne man Dave Stewart is demonstrating support for Jacinda Ardern as his was of standing up to the bullying she has faced as prime minister and to thank her for her public service. Photo / Troy Baker
Whakatāne man Dave Stewart has been spurred by the hate and vitriol directed at Jacinda Ardern to demonstrate his gratitude for her public service.
Stewart has been seen every day, since Monday, standing on prominent roundabouts or roadsides in Whakatāne during peak traffic hours holding a sign saying, “Thank you Jacinda, best PM ever”. He intends to continue for the rest of this week.
He said the purpose of his stance has been to stand up to all the bullying and hate that Ardern had been subject to.
“I just thought, it’s time to make a stand now and say that, actually, Jacinda, a lot of people do love you,” he said.
It has been well documented that threats of death and violence have been amongst the extreme hatred levelled at Ardern, which has increased over the past six months or so.
A recent article published on the University of Auckland website by senior lecturer in politics and international relations, Chris Wilson, appeared to bear this out.
Wilson, who recently led a team of researchers looking into extremism and hate on internet forums Gab, NZ Telegram channels, 4chan, Reddit and 8chan - known to be homes to the ‘dark corners’ in terms of people’s comments - compared seven public figures in New Zealand, politicians and bureaucrats, male and female, from the left and right of the political spectrum.
The study showed that Ardern “faced online vitriol at a rate between 50 and 90 times higher than any other high-profile figure”.
“When I saw Jacinda’s resignation speech, I thought that I hadn’t done enough to stand up to the bullying,” Stewart said.
“I’d (previously) thought to myself how remarkable it was that she was doing the job and how she handles all of the hate, and in that moment, I realised, actually, she hasn’t and that I should have done something earlier.”
What really sparked Stewart’s demonstration was when he drove to Auckland on Friday and saw an example of the sort of hate Ardern had been subjected to as he passed a farm on the Bombay hills.
Whakatāne man Dave Stewart is demonstrating support for Jacinda Ardern as his was of standing up to the bullying she has faced as prime minister and to thank her for her public service. Photo / Troy Baker
“Each hay bale had a letter on it that spelt out ‘resignation accepted’ and the farmer had put a stuffed horse ... on a stake. I thought it was so horrible, I wanted to go and knock on his door and say, ‘I really think that’s nasty’.
“I haven’t done enough to counter that, and I think I needed to, for myself. I needed to stand on the side of the road with a sign saying, ‘thank you, Jacinda’. It’s about spreading a whole lot of love over a whole lot of hate and every time you do that love will always shine through, I think.”
Stewart, who has lived in Whakatāne for 10 years, describes himself as a retired businessman. He has worked in farming and in the horse racing industry for 41 years as a photo finish operator.
He said the response he had received to his demonstration had been overwhelmingly positive, although after the first day, Whakatāne Police had requested that he not stand on the roundabouts as he could cause nose-to-tail accidents.
“One guy drove around the Eivers Rd roundabout three times and had a conversation with me. He said, ‘good on yah, mate. I totally agree with you’ then he came back and said, ‘I wish I had the balls to do what you’re doing’, and then he drove around one more time and said ‘I’ve got to go to work now’.
I could sort of see from that, that the cops had a point, that it could cause an accident. I didn’t want to do that.
“I was really expecting a lot of hate. On the first day I think I got four people swear at me, but overwhelmingly, 100 times more than that were tooting and waving and giving thumbs up and all the rest of it, and [Tuesday] was even better. So, the reaction was that a lot of people would like to acknowledge and say, ‘thank you, Jacinda Ardern’.
“There are a lot of people who are glad she’s gone, and that’s politics, that’s how politics works but we don’t need this vile politics that we’ve got. There’s just no place for it, I don’t think. That’s what this is about - standing up to it.”
