Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): The member who just resumed his seat he started to speak so well. He promised that after all that noise he would bring some order. Then like George Orwell's animals I looked from Webb to Smith and Smith to Webb and Smith to Webb again and still I could see no difference. I could hear no difference because they sounded exactly the same.I've had quite an interesting week I'd have to say and it actually has taught me one thing: the great line out of the great movie Thank You For Smoking Let it be known the public beating has not gone out of [fashion]."It seems that an MP can't even say that another MP who wants to regulate what you can say—and it does include you Madam Deputy Speaker; it includes all of us—should somehow be a menace to freedom of speech. If one says that then one deserves a public beating. You see if one says that—an honestly held view about politics and the future of our country which is what we're supposed to be here to express—then one is responsible for violence and thuggery.The logic of that is that we should have our speech regulated by the thugs and the bullies because if anybody makes a threat then the victim of the threat is not allowed to be criticised—that they should have their participation in political debate curtailed and become a no-go zone. We allow the thugs and bullies to win because we can't debate things that they have said they are going to use violence against.The reaction: well let me say again a good old-fashioned public beating ain't gone out of fashion even in this country at the time this Parliament's talking about bullying.You know it started with a real surprise. Judith Collins someone who can usually be relied upon to stand up for freedom of expression thought it was more important to criticise how I said it than what I said. The specific threat to freedom of expression in this country—oh that could have a free pass but saying that somebody who wants to regulate all speech is a menace to that freedom that's a major problem.Then the next thing that came along was the media and they didn't ask the questions. They didn't ask the question how an MP had to have a security detail. They didn't ask why the first thing that happened was that they the media were told. They happily trotted out the narrative that it was because of the evil David Seymour's innocuous debating points. A public beating hasn't gone out of fashion.Then came a real surprise—actually there was one more expected one. The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians wrote to me. They didn't ask any of those questions and said I should monitor my behaviour. Well I've written back to them and said I do that all the time and actually it's up to them to start asking the question: is it right that women in New Zealand should feel afraid to engage in debate because they are threatened and be held to a different standard if they're victims of threats? Then the surprise came. Even the Speaker of the House of Parliament weighed in and said that I was a bully. Well a public beating hasn't gone out of fashion here in New Zealand or in this Parliament.What all of these people have done is very clearly demonstrated why it is so important that an individual has the right to express their thoughts and their feelings freely so long as they do not directly incite violence so long as they do not defame anybody and so long as they do not directly threaten somebody. We have that freedom and we must preserve it because as we've seen in the last 48 hours you can't rely on other political parties you can't rely on the Speaker of the House you can't rely on the media and you certainly can't rely on the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians. All of those people are happy to indulge in a popularity contest where the winners get to put the losers perhaps even in prison with the sanction of State power.That is a future that we cannot afford in this country. That is the reason why we must continue to stand up for freedom of expression and that is why when people issue the kinds of disgusting threats that have allegedly been made against one member of Parliament rather than politicising the issue and attacking each other we should be united in condemning those people we shouldn't absolve them of any responsibility by accusing each other and we should be investigating what those people have done and punishing them—not ourselves and not freedom of expression in this country. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."