New Zealand First’s stance has always been that the government has no place in the nation’s bedrooms.

But what has happened today is breathtaking and a serious assault on this country’s democracy and points to a disastrous interference in the upcoming election.

Family First has had a newspaper advertisement cancelled by multiple news outlets at the eleventh hour – all due to the fact that those media outlets don’t like what Family First sought to advertise – promoting a website petition about the dictionary definition of ‘what is a woman’.

Mainstream media is now refusing to publish the opinion held by the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders and indeed men and women worldwide.

The website is promoting the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a woman - “noun: Adult, Human, Female.”

People in a democracy should be free to express their personal opinion, but what is clear is that an emerging totalitarian cancel culture seeks to strangle democracy’s essential element – freedom of speech.

A free press, or the Fourth Estate, is critical to any democracy, but these media outlets are acting like a bunch of Fifth Columnists curtailing genuine political debate, freedom of speech, and the rights of others expressing their opinions on something as simple as a dictionary definition – either because ‘they don’t agree’ or have not got the courage to make a stand for plain common sense. 

New Zealand First says either end this madness or suffer the consequences of the so called “Public Interest Journalism Fund” being recalled.

It is utter madness that our country is in such a state that the definition of a woman has, in the elitist echelons, become a topic of conversation and controversy.

Freedom of speech in New Zealand is now facing its biggest threat.