by Mike Bee

 

On 14^th July Liz Gunn closed the NZ Loyal Party and a few weeks later had it de-registered with the Electoral Commission. When a great deal of opposition was expressed against this by party members and when it was pointed out that this action was entirely against the rules of NZ Loyal’s own Constitution, Liz made another video in which she stated (at 24:47) that, “I don’t give a damn about the Constitution or the rules,” and refused to reconsider her decision.

It was put out at that time that the opposition to her decision all originated from a single group, Counterspin Media, and that Kelvyn Alp and his partner Hannah Spierer were aiming to stage a coup and take over Liz’s party. However, this was nothing but an attempt to distract people away from what had been done in taking such an illegal step as to close the party without consultation with members. Opposition around the country to what had been done went far deeper than those connected to Counterspin Media alone. Many reacted to Liz’s decision to close the party with complete shock and knew in their hearts that it was against everything they believed in.

The rules of the NZ Loyal Constitution are very clear about what it takes for the party to be closed – 80% agreement from members – and about what ordinary party members can do if they feel the situation warrants it. If 50 members are in agreement, a Special General Meeting can be called to which all members are to be invited.

The Constitution states 50 members can “petition the Board” to have such a meeting, but the Board, which in a year had never met, had already been dissolved by Liz Gunn. At first, the situation seemed impossible. How do you petition a dysfunctional body that no longer exists? However, when a board has been dissolved illegally, responsibility for the party’s direction goes back to the members. We asked the question: did Liz, according to our own party rules, have the authority to close the party and dissolve the Board? The answer is clearly no. The party was formed to represent the members, and it was now up to these members to put things to rights. People began to realise that something was being asked of them.

It was difficult to keep people informed of what was happening because the party secretary held the contact information on members, and the party secretary had, like Liz herself, refused to pick up the phone to anyone who was not in agreement with the closing of the party. Also, dialogue was not allowed on the NZL Facebook channel where those who expressed opinions contrary to Liz’s were silenced or removed from the group.

However, one NZ Loyal member, Lisa Williams, drafted a letter calling for a Special General Meeting to be held on Saturday 17^th August. The letter, sent out as widely as possible, included the agenda for this meeting, the key item of which was to come to a decision that day regarding whether members would accept Liz’s closure of the party or choose to override this, resolving that the party should continue. What always should have been the decision of the members was to be put to their vote.

The Counterspin Media chat had played an important role in people being able to communicate with each other after Liz’s announcement. Many local Telegram groups had been closed down earlier and, as already said, the official Facebook and Telegram groups were controlled by those who were not interested in all sides of the story being able to be aired. Talking with others on the Counterspin chat helped people get over their shock and despair at hearing their party had been taken from them overnight and also played a key role in the members’ decision regarding what could be done about this. However, those who attended the SGM were certainly not all Counterspin Media supporters. On the morning of 17^th August, around 80 people were present at a venue in Mt Eden, Auckland, with another 30 following (and able to vote) on Zoom.

The first part of the meeting was a brief outline of the way correct procedure had been broken and what had led to the necessity that this meeting be called. Chairman, Brenton Faithfull, took pains to establish that everything possible had been done to communicate with the previous Board and to show that we had the required numbers to represent the party. We then moved on to the main question – should NZ Loyal die as a political party, with those who saw the need for political activity starting a new party, or should it continue further beyond this present situation? It was clear that few people present wanted the party to end, and the issue was put to a vote in the form of a motion – “that the NZ Loyal Party goes on further.” This passed unanimously.

One could feel a great wave of relief go through the meeting that the big issue that we had felt might be contentious was actually not so difficult after all. Some people believe in political activity and some don’t, but the need to be able to be active politically and to be able to contest in future elections simply was not an issue – everyone present saw that this had to be possible and wanted the party they had put so much time and effort into be able to continue this kind of work.

It is a fact that we have been deregistered with the Electoral Commission, but we continue as a party and re-registering can be done in future, either by proving the deregistration was based on a process that violated party rules or by simply repeating the registration process and providing the Electoral Commission with the names and signatures of 500 members. There is no great rush to do this.

The agenda had included new election of a party leader, however members decided against appointing any individual to take this position, instead choosing seven people who would become an interim Board to replace the group that Liz had appointed before the election. Kelvyn Alp, whom Liz had accused of plotting to steal the party leadership for himself, was not interested in becoming a leader and did not volunteer to sit on the Board.

This interim Board will do whatever is necessary in coming months – negotiating with the previous party secretary to get financial records and the contact addresses of members, following up on the issue of the copyrighting of the logo and, most importantly, preparing for an Annual General Meeting in a few months’ time. At this AGM a new leader can be elected (although we can also decide to continue without one), and the interim Board can be confirmed or other members chosen to replace or expand the seven interim leaders. Trust was given to the Board to use their initiative in coming weeks, but it was made particularly clear to them that members demand absolute transparency regarding any action they take and that all their decisions must be ratified by members.

John Armstrong, the newly appointed leader of the New Zealand Loyal People’s Movement, spoke at the meeting, and this was appreciated by all. However, his account of how the decision to close the party had been made without his input when he was in South Africa was not at all convincing. No personal responsibility was taken beyond the statement that, “Mistakes were made.”

We learned more from Ray Bailey who was present at a group called “the Caucus” that evidently made the closure decision, though he had objected at the time. We heard from Ray that the decision to close the party “was made from above”, however his concerns for privacy issues prevented him from elaborating on this. Some tried to persuade Ray that because the old Board and Caucus were no longer in existence his Non-Disclosure Agreement with them was also no longer of any relevance, but Ray begged to be excused from telling all he knew at this point. Just enough was disclosed to make us understand how very un-democratic the conduct of the Board and Caucus has been. There are many lessons here for the future. The new Board must do all it can to avoid making such mistakes in the future and members must be looking over their shoulder and prepared to call them to account.

Ray Bailey also revealed that the previous Board had never held even a single meeting. He promised to make available a copy of the Non-Disclosure Agreement that Board members had been asked to sign. This he did the following day, and it is very interesting that the person who claimed not to believe in rules actually put extremely heavy constraints on what those working with her could share with the membership. Ray himself had not signed the NDA, pointing out when he had been asked that it was at odds with the spirit of the party.

All in all, this has been a terrible event to go through and many people have suffered a great deal, but we have survived the crisis and, in my opinion, are in a much stronger position now. Most of us joined NZ Loyal because we believed in real freedom where people work together in a way that is not top-down. Many of us hold as a kind of archetype for the future what we have experienced as the spirit of the Parliamentary Protests. We now realise that there were dreadfully authoritarian tendencies present in our party from the outset, and that decisions were made in a spirit that was the very opposite of transparency. This has been a very awakening experience for us all, and we vow now that, as the song says, “We’ll not be fooled again!” The interim Board and whatever succeeds it has to earn our trust with full transparency in all their future activities. If they don’t, they can expect to be fired!

Many people, both at the meeting and at other times, have expressed great sympathy for Liz Gunn. She has been viciously treated by the legal system and the two police who attacked her and her cameraman at the airport. However, sympathy for her can co-exist with criticism of the way she has managed the party. We now see that flaws were in place since the party’s beginning. These flaws culminated in a false belief that the party was somehow hers and that she could close it down when she wished, consulting in secret with only a small group that members did not even know existed.

But the most important thing to take away as a learning experience from this is that the party does NOT belong to any one individual. Perhaps we put too much onto leaders as a compensation for our own inadequacies. Liz Gunn served the party for a time, and we are grateful for the many great deeds that she did at the time of its birthing, but the party is the members. These members have now chosen a different group to represent them, and these representatives understand the need for accountability and transparency in all they do.

Isn’t this what we want with New Zealand as a whole – that the old style of government be replaced by one that genuinely cares about the people and works with them and in their interests? This is the meaning of “Loyal to you not to them.” To have the right to demand this in the greater society, the party must walk its talk. It cannot claim to be working for a transformation of New Zealand society if it is surreptitiously being run through authoritarian tendencies in its own inner workings. We know the present political system is corrupt, and we know all things possible are done to keep groups such as ours down and away from the seats of power. Nevertheless, we represent the people of New Zealand, and the transformation of New Zealand must start first of all in our own hearts and in the relationships we have with each other.

The acrimony that has been waged can be dropped now. NZ Loyal continues, and we hope the old guard will execute their legal duty to perform a full financial audit and show books that are balanced. If necessary, the Board will consider measures to compel this, but this need not be a bitter, publicly-visible dispute, and we hope that rational thinking will rule the day.

Liz attempted to make it seem that all the resistance to her ideas came from a few malcontents, however this attempt to gaslight especially two individuals failed. Saturday’s meeting was not the action of any minority in the party but an expression of the will of all members who shared the concern that the party they believed in so strongly was being sabotaged and who wanted to see this party put back on a healthy footing.

These people – we, the loyal party members – have a lot of work to do now. At least 37,000 people voted for the party in the last election. Where are those people now? With the failure of leadership to act since the election, many have been drifting away. Word must go out that we now have a party that is genuinely working for the people in the way that was given as a promise to them before the election.

The meeting on 17^th August cleared the way for many good things to happen. The path is open now to form meaningful bridges with other non-mainstream parties. Always the goal of genuine unity has been desired, but the reality of our differences has meant that more than one party had to be created. However, these parties and groups – political ones and non-political ones – can work together and come to genuine agreements about the many concerns that we all have in common.

There is also no reason why the new group that Liz has founded, the non-political New Zealand Loyal People’s Movement, cannot work together with the politically active NZ Loyal Party. People have different skills and preferences – some believe in being active politically and some prefer a different approach. Both these ways of working are necessary. We want the same thing, and when the emotions of the last few weeks have been given a bit more time to clear and die away, the path will be open for reconciliation in the light of those real issues that we are all up against and that are much bigger than then the concerns of all our little personal egos.

We are under no illusions about the enormity of what is coming towards us. In New Zealand the extremely dangerous New Zealand Pandemic Plan has been passed, and the WHO has declared a health emergency concerning monkey pox. The United Nations continues its attempts to bring discord into nations with its radical communist agenda of abolishing private property and stirring up racial conflict. Worldwide censorship is increasing at a rapid rate, the economic situation is dire, and we now have in New Zealand no more than eight days of petrol in reserve if, for any reason, shipments to this country are prevented from getting through. These are all symptoms of a wider global conflict in which it seems inevitable that in many places in the world a great clash between governmental power and the power of the people is destined to take place.

Some say that what has been happening to NZ Loyal over the last few weeks has been a distraction from this and other problems of greater importance, but I would contend that everything that has happened is of great significance. We cannot hold government accountable and ask it to serve the people if the party we are part of is actually a victim of the same overreach tendencies that we are fighting against in central and local government. It may be that Liz Gunn has inadvertently taught us a very necessary lesson and that we can thank her for bringing about a situation that has shaken us awake.

NZ Loyal has a key role to play in the resistance that must waged to attacks on individual liberty. Whether one believes in trying to get a foot in the door in the old political system in order to transform it or whether one prefers to work entirely outside of that system, this party can be a living entity around which people may work. And we are preparing for a time when many more Kiwis will realise how their government, which they had believed in, was actually working against them and that something entirely new is necessary. We must make ourselves ready for that time.

Saturday’s SGM was only a beginning, but it was a significant beginning. The way is clear now for the wonderful work that took place before the 2023 election to be continued and for this party of great potential to go forward once again.

 

 

PLEASE PASS THIS ARTICLE ON TO OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN – OR COULD BE IN FUTURE – INVOLVED WITH NZ LOYAL. WE HAVE NOT YET BEEN GIVEN A LIST OF PARTY MEMBERS AND WE NEED TO GET THE WORD OUT TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE CONCERNING WHAT HAS HAPPENED AND WHAT WE ARE DOING IN FUTURE. HELP THIS PARTY TO GROW!

Look for more articles by the Counterspin team of writers on counterspinmedia.com/blog

and at counterspinmedia.substack.com