A website aimed at immigrants, heavy on te reo and pushing a message of unity is accused of being deceitful and divisive.
The ‘We Belong Aotearoa’ website and Facebook account was set up earlier this year. With bright colours and a modern design, its stated purpose is “whiria te tāngata” – weave the people together.
Photographs of smiling people of various ethnicities are featured and the website says it stands for togetherness, unity, inclusiveness, and equality. It asks people to ‘join us’ by signing up with a name and email address.
It cites a Māori proverb: “Kia Mau Ki Te Tokanga Nui a Noho – there’s no place like home.” Between $6000 and $20,964 has been spent on advertisements on Facebook promoting the website.
The website and social media presence are run by the Campaign Company, which lists Jordan Williams (co-founder of the Taxpayers’ Union) as a director. The Campaign Company is also listed as the “admin contact” of other domain names associated with Hobson’s Pledge including isthisracist.nz, bottomline.nz and equalhealth.nz. The hobsonspledge.nz domain name also has the Taxpayers’ Union listed as its “admin contact”.
