Politicians open up on hateful attacks, threats

Elected officials are speaking out about the bullying they’ve experienced in office, saying death threats and personal attacks from the public have become part of the job.

Auckland councillors Richard Hills and Penny Hulse, along with Green MP Chloe Swarbrick, say letters, voicemails and in-person attacks are all methods employed by haters, but most hide behind keyboards.

For Swarbrick, trolls had used both online platforms and physical letters to get their message across.

Public figures were subject to a cultural phenomenon where they weren’t necessarily seen as being human, Swarbrick said.

‘‘When you’re seen as an identity or a concept, you’re seen as out there to be critiqued.

‘‘I think that constructive critique is really important, but there’s a difference between constructive critique and a flood of vitriol.’’

Hills described his early days in office as a time when he received ‘‘a lot of homophobic stuff’’, but he’d managed to block most of the offenders. ‘‘One I saw [online] said ‘What is the Shore coming to? This is a disgrace [that I’m gay]’. I wouldn’t even repeat some of the stuff people have said.’’

More recently, Hills had been told he was subhuman and that someone wanted to kill him.

Reading something ‘‘horrendous’’ after a big week at work was when it felt worst and his family had also been attacked.

‘‘I tell them not to . . . [but] my family read all those comments and they worry.

‘‘It doesn’t really affect me as much anymore because you’re just so used to the noise.’’

Penny Hulse, ex-deputy mayor of Auckland and current councillor, said she had built up resilience against bullies over the years but feared for those who didn’t have support systems in place.

During her time at the council, Hulse had received threats of having her house burnt down and been shouted at in the supermarket.

‘‘Probably the worst was a

‘‘I tell them not to . . . [but] my family read all those comments and they worry.’’ Councillor Richard Hills

‘‘I think that constructive critique is really important, but there’s a difference between constructive critique and a flood of vitriol.’’ Green MP Chloe Swarbrick

series of letters that arrived in my letterbox and unfortunately, my husband opened them.

‘‘They accused me of doing some pretty vile things and I thought, ‘That took a pretty motivated person to run a little campaign like that.’

‘‘When they’ve taken the time to do it on a personal level, that really shakes you.’’

Yesterday, she received an abusive email attacking her over council plans to protect native birds.

‘‘What is unacceptable is that a jumped up wannabee [sic] AND a female to boot, from South Africa can think she can arrogantly intimidate Kiwi cat lovers,’’ the email announced.

‘‘How dare I be a female,’’ Hulse said of the incident.

But she wasn’t opposed to people disagreeing with her, acknowledging it was an important part of the democratic process. Instead, she wanted to see people focusing on issues, instead of the people behind them.

‘‘We should be free to question and challenge, but we should never demolish.’’

Netsafe CEO Martin Cocker said that, in the past year, one in 10 New Zealand adults had received some form of digital communication that caused them harm. For teenagers, that rate was double.

‘‘Some people are abusing or harassing because they’re so caught up in an issue that they’ve lost perspective.

‘‘They [wrongly] think the online space isn’t governed [by law] and they can get away with it.’’

‘‘When they’ve taken the time to do it on a personal level, that really shakes you.’’ Councillor Penny Hulse