A prominent Kiwi scientist warns New Zealand's social cohesion is at risk following chaotic scenes at Posie Parker's rally in Auckland on Saturday.
Parker, real name Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, was forced to leave her event in Albert Park after a hostile reception from transgender rights protesters saw her doused, mobbed, and sprayed by the crowd. She was later spotted at Auckland Airport checking in to an international flight.
Researcher, scientist and the Prime Minister's former Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman released research in 2020 that said social cohesion and national unity were going to come under pressure in the years to come, which he now believes is coming true.
"It's deep across all democracies that we're seeing polarised societies not coping well with rapid change and change is very, very rapid," Sir Peter told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green.
"We've seen the weaponisation of narrative, particularly through social media and these things polarise people, make people scared, which in turn reinforces the ability for people to be more polarised."
Sir Peter believes Kiwis need to get better at accepting different viewpoints and accepting people have rights so we can have constructive conversations instead of them turning into heated debates or violent scenes.
"We can't have a contestation of ideas if we no longer allow people who don't necessarily agree with each other to have constructive dialogue and find a way through what are difficult matters," he said.
"We see epithets like racists being thrown around in ways that are not appropriate. There are racists, but many people who are accused of being racist just happen to have a different idea from other people and the people who are throwing the accusations at them.
"We need to get better. We need to find ways to have constructive, non-emotive or less emotive conversations on matters where society needs to come together and have a consensus."
He also believes politicians and media have a role to play in this and encouraging "sensible discourse".
"We need to see our politics and our discourse return to the centre otherwise we'll fragment and we'll look like other countries we do not want to emulate in that regard, who have large protests on the street or where politicians can quite cheekily say black is white and one and one equals three."
Sir Peter said the scenes at Albert Park were caused by people being scared. He's called for Kiwis to respect people who are transgender or people struggling with their own identity.
"The whole of society needs to understand that every human has rights that need to be respected, and that includes the right to express one's own identity and gender.
"It also expresses the right to be concerned about the roles of people in society and that needs to be a discussion whereby people understand that people who are transgender or who have issues with their gender identity need to be able to work that through and find their own place in society as full integrated members of society."
He believes Kiwis are not fully equipped with all the knowledge they should have and wants New Zealand's leaders to have a role in upskilling people in these areas.
"Most people do not know what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights means. We don't hold our politicians to account to talk about these issues. We don't encourage discussion on issues of rights," he said.
"When we don't do that, we fall into the trap of extreme contestation, when all said and done a liberal democracy has two components," he said.
Watch the full interview with Sir Peter Gluckman in the video above.
