Petition targets ‘white supremacist’
Synlait Milk is investigating after allegations of white supremacy were made against one of its workers.
The dairy company issued a statement yesterday in response to a petition calling for a review of its employment of right-wing blogger and alleged white supremacist Lee Williams.
The change.org petition, started by Justice Aotearoa on Thursday, called for Synlait to ‘‘make it clear that they give nothing to racism, most especially a pay cheque’’.
As of yesterday afternoon, it had attracted more than 3800 signatures.
The petition claims Williams, author of the Cross the Rubicon blog, has been responsible for ‘‘disseminating extreme white supremacist material, and has consistently been reported for creating objectionable and racist media for his channel’’.
In 2019 Williams’ YouTube channel was banned for threemonths following a series of complaints. More recently he has taken to directly attacking Ma¯ori MPs Rawiri Waititi and Willie Jackson, and was stoking public fear in response to the He Puapua report, the petition says.
In a statement, Synlait said it ‘‘takes these matters very seriously’’ and was conducting an investigation. ‘‘We are deeply concerned that someone has these views. Lee Williams’ views are his own. These views are not shared or held by Synlait.’’
In a video response to the petition, Williams said its creators wanted to ‘‘cancel and destroy’’ him for ‘‘telling the truth of what is happening in New Zealand’’. ‘‘They’re trying to say I’m a violent white supremacist, would you believe that? This is how disgusting they are.’’
Williams had started a counter petition against the ‘‘cancelation [sic] culture driven by far leftists and Maori supremacists in NZ’’. At mid-afternoon yesterday, it had been signed by 29 people.