In the red corner

Earlier this year, the prime minister delivered a powerful commencement speech at Harvard University. Dressed in a kākahu and a graduation robe, she spoke about the challenge of disinformation, and the importance of democracy and kindness.

In the speech, she cautioned that we will continue to be exposed to disinformation, and that, over time, the ‘‘noise’’ that we’re surrounded by will probably get worse. However, she said, ‘‘while we cannot change everything about the environment that we’re in, we can change ourselves. To build greater strength and resilience, in spite of the headwinds around us.’’

The answer to how we build this resilience and protect against the disinformation corroding our democracy, I believe, lies within a few things.

First, if there’s one message that I can share with people as we approach local elections, it would be this: your vote is valuable, don’t throw it away.

We also need to be aware of the global rise of the disinformation movement, as highlighted by Stuff’s Fire and Fury documentary. What Aotearoa is experiencing now, including candidates hiding extremist agendas, is an imported trend from the United States. It’s designed to spread disinformation, undermine public institutions, and create division, hatred and violence.

Kiwis are smarter than that, but we can’t be complacent. We can’t take our democracy for granted – we need to act and organise to ensure our democratic institutions are protected from these dangerous views. We all have a role to play. As Dr Mona Krewel from Victoria University said, these candidates have a good chance of being elected if voter turnout is low. She also said voters now have a civic duty to research candidates before giving them their vote, because the consequences are big.

These extremist views won’t simply disappear, and as Stuff’s investigation shows, ‘‘it’s more effective to prevent disinformation gaining a foothold by showing people the context in which it exists, than to try to counter it with the facts, once people have fallen for it.’’

As a government, we’re working alongside other countries, as well as across departments, to address these issues. I’m also proud of the changes we’ve made to remove barriers and ensure that more Kiwis of good character feel comfortable to stand as candidates.

We will continue to look at the tools in our toolbox and make changes as needed, but we know it’s going to take an all of society approach to succeed.