Data obtained by the Herald from police under the Official Information Act show between November 2023 – when National formed the current Government with New Zealand First and Act – and October 2024, there were 25 recorded threats against MPs. Nine were specifically against Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
This information was pulled from a police system that requires manual input, meaning some reports made to police may not be included if they weren’t added to the system.
“Most threats recorded were received in an online format, including both social media and email,” police said. “There is no prominent theme to the threats. However, many of them are suspected to involve people suffering mental distress.”
There's been a dramatic decline in the number of threats. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Looking at the data in comparison to the previous year, there is a clear decline. Between November 2022 and October 2023, there were 68 threats overall, including 22 against the two Prime Ministers who served in that period, Dame Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins.
The number of threats dropped substantially after the change of government in November 2023. For example, in the three months previous (August, September, and October 2023), there were 17 threats. But in the next three months there were just four.
Casting even further back, previous police data shows that between November 2021 and October 2022, there were 93 threats recorded against MPs. During that period, Ardern received 64 threats.
What’s changed?
Sociologist Professor Paul Spoonley told the Herald there was a “rapid and wide-ranging escalation in online hate and threats” towards politicians between 2020 and 2022 “as they became the face for Covid measures”.
Police have previously said “Covid mandates” were a theme of threats in 2022. During the occupation of Parliament that year, a protest primarily against Covid measures, there were threats made, and abuse was hurled at MPs.
But many of the issues fuelling Covid-19 protests then no longer have the cut-through they did at the time. For example, vaccine mandates are no longer enforced and the coalition Government is attempting to address concerns about their use through phase two of its Covid inquiry.
“The issues that mobilised these communities are just simply not there. We don’t have Covid restrictions in place.”
Dame Jacinda Ardern faced hostility not just because of what her government was doing, but because she was a woman, Professor Paul Spoonley says. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Spoonley said there were also some “particular circumstances” for New Zealand at the time that would have inflamed the threats.
“One of the things that really escalated very rapidly and became a significant characteristic was misogyny. Not only was Ardern the target because she was doing things as [the head of a] government, which upset parts of the community, but the fact she was a woman seemed to add to the vitriol.”
Spoonley said misogyny “has not disappeared” – he argued it’s now directed towards Māori female politicians – but it “lacks a lightning rod with a conservative male PM”.
There’s also a point when “people sort of run out of energy, too”, Spoonley said.
“When I look at how people invested in being vitriolic and articulating their threats online, it completely obsessed some people, and I think there’s a point where you just don’t have the time and the energy for that.”
Some of that hate may now also be directed elsewhere, with Spoonley noting the growth in hostility towards Muslim and Jewish communities, particularly in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks in the Middle-East in late 2023.
“I think there has been a bit of a displacement. What we have seen is politicians aren’t in the firing line quite as much – they still are, but not quite as much.
“However, what we are seeing is certain communities – I would pick the Muslim and Jewish communities – now experiencing an increased level of hate and racism directed at them. So, it’s not gone, but it’s moved to new targets.”
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
