“You shouldn’t be able to have any say girl”

The toxic hell of Facebook - and David Seymour’s role in fanning the flames

A woman smiles into the camera and says: “Today, I’m reflecting on how Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a gift that means that my whānau can make Aotearoa home. And I’m grateful. We must honour Te Tiriti.”

“I’m not at Waitangi today,” she says. “I was meant to be there. I also couldn’t make the Wellington celebrations this morning because we’ve had Covid in the household. Little kids sick. But luckily so far I’m negative.” She holds her crossed fingers up to the camera and smiles wider.

“Wish me luck to stay that way and enjoy your Waitangi Day and honour Te Tiriti.”

She posts the short clip to her Facebook page.

Immediately the comments come flooding in.

Nigel Kerr says “Heard of makeup”. Mike Stevens replies that the woman’s colleagues don’t wear makeup or deodorant.

For a change of pace, Vickie McMahon doesn’t attack the woman’s appearance and instead says: “We should never have immigrants in our parliament”. This sentiment is repeated over and over again from profile pictures of angry sunburnt faces.

Adam Marks says: “This IS New Zealand….You are in NEW ZEALAND now, here we speak ENGLISH”. Many comments from the same crowd of mild butter chicken loving Hobson’s Pledge supporters just say “New Zealand”.

Gerard Pearce who poses with a gun in his Facebook photo along with the incel’s fashion accessory of choice - a fedora - comments “What a horror show! My own electorate MP. We never see you round here in Rongotai! Seeing this I am glad we don’t, you’ll frighten the kids”.

Michael Derrett says: “not born here then get out You shouldn’t be able to have any say girl”.

Brett Russell says “who let the dogs out”.

Darren Austin says “My God imagine waking up to that every day” and Michael Weaver who is dressed in some kind of Temu-bought Storm Trooper costume says “ooff [sic] that’s what it looks like in the morning”.

Another guy with a fake name says “and don’t forget kids, Waitangi Day is makeup off day”.

Peppered in between are a few people wishing the woman good health and a gentle day. Stephen Davis replies to a comment saying “hope they feel better soon” with “another Maori Day supporter [sic]”.

Ed Murray says “Get some makeup on for gods sake your [sic] frightining [sic] people” and Mike Flavell says “Did you just get out of bed. Look at the state of those bags and wrinkles”.

Lindon Boyce makes dozens and dozens of comments and says she’s “nothing more than a parasite”. Jeffrey Lowe says “Wow what a good looking woman”.

Some comments are insults but it’s hard to tell because the spelling is so bad. She’s a “site” or is on “your Pethetic high horse” [sic]. Stephen Davis says: “looks like Gonerea on your face”.

There are a tiny number of women attacking her, Lorraine Henson says “go back to your own country stupid woman” and Pam Bentley asks if she’s been drinking. Sarah-Hope Bailey says Aotearoa should have “a law you need to be BORN here to become an MP”.

Bli Shannon McCabe whose profile photos includes a small child on his shoulders berates her for wearing a singlet. Justin Haworth turns a disability into a slur about her appearance.

John Hillyer says “that’s a very slappable face” and Matt Warret calls her a “degenerate old spinster”. Gary Willetts makes a comment about her eye. Paul Price questions if she’s a woman and calls her hideous. Leslie Jon makes a comment about sex acts. Paul Wilton says “what surprised me is that she found someone to get her pregnant”. James Gollan calls her “that” and says she looks “deranged”. Howard Bellaby says “you need to wash your hair, love”. John O’Meara laments her presentations and then despairs that she’s “a foreigner as well”. Chris Gage says “thought this was the Blair witch project”. Matt Higgs says “bit early for Halloween isn’t it?”.

Eventually you see the N word, anti-semitism, ableist slurs and waves upon waves of hate against Māori with praise for the David Seymour and the Act Party.

It goes on and on and on. If you click into the profile photos of those in the comments they are all white and almost all are men. Many are holding a gun or cosplaying being in the military. Some have their daughters in their profile pictures. Otherwise they have AI photos of what they wished they looked like.

It’s relentless. There are almost 2000 comments.

As we sit in her sun-lit garden, Julie Anne Genter looks radiant. Despite spending the day in the hot sun at the Island Bay Fair speaking to her constituents of Rongotai, the Green MP seems happy and relaxed.

It has been a hard week for her. Her children aged three and six are peeking through the windows, waving at us from inside the house. They’ve been sick all week and are now at that stage where they just want to go to the park - but they’re still Covid positive. Most parents would relate to that struggle.

I feel guilty and start our chat with an apology. Julie Anne hadn’t seen the comments on her page until I had called her and I wondered if she might have been able to just not see them.

She explains that actually, due to threats, she has to read all of the comments on her rare posts. Still, she wasn’t expecting such a vitriolic reaction to a simple video updating her constituents.

“I was very much like - I'm not at Waitangi, I'm at home, I've had sick kids, and I was thinking, I am a local representative, I should say something simple, just put something out there for anyone who does follow me. I guess I thought I'll just do it natural in the garden, you know, I hadn't slept much because my daughter was coughing all night.”

“I did think before I put it up, maybe not my best look, but I wasn't quite expecting…” she trails off.

After 13 years in Parliament, Julie Anne is used to abuse online. She’s a woman in politics - of course she knows. But lately, there’s been a ramping up of racism and white supremacy along with misogynistic slurs.

She is at pains to point out that as a white cis woman she receives less abuse than her colleagues who are Māori and women of colour. And she’s right.

We need only look to Tory Whanau, Golriz Ghahraman, Kiri Allan, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, Marama Davidson and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to see just how different the abuse is, how relentless it is.

As reported in the Guardian, on the campaign trail 21-year-old Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, experienced more politically targeted abuse in one week than many senior politicians have experienced in their entire careers.

Tory Whanau faces racist and misogynistic attacks not only online but in the media, with RNZ choosing to report sexualised rumours about her that they knew to be false.

Julie Anne agreed to our interview because often simply speaking out about the issue of abuse of women in Parliament brings on a new wave of violent rhetoric. That’s why many of her colleagues are unable to speak out. In using her privilege, she hopes we can shed some light on the increasing online vitriol aimed at women politicians - and the causes of it.

So how does it feel to be hit with comment after comment after comment about your personal appearance?

“Well, obviously, as a woman, I am receptive to feedback from everyone. And I do get more self- conscious,” she says. “I am sure like many other women… well, you take on board what people are telling you”.

Thoughts about whether she should be wearing makeup or how laugh-lines might look on camera briefly surfaced but the racism and xenophobia was the most concerning for Julie Anne.

“I think there's no question that this short clip was considered controversial because of the debate around the Treaty Principles Bill, because of the platform that a certain soon-to-be deputy prime minister has. It has polarised people.”

“I haven't ever seen so many comments saying that ‘this is New Zealand speak English’ as I have in the last few months.”

The question of whether the prime minister Christopher Luxon and David Seymour should be considering their role in pushing division and the environment that is creating for Māori and women online has been asked repeatedly. Both have shirked the question - which is unsurprising because it would involve a huge behaviour change, especially for Seymour.

He is well aware that he controls an army of abusive men online. He repeatedly targeted Golriz Ghahraman which in turn led to so many death threats that she needed a Parliamentary Service security officer detail.

“Do I think they have a role that they should be playing?” Julie Anne says. “Yes, absolutely. Do I think they will play that role? No. I don't think that's in their interest at all. The ACT Party is benefiting politically, from polarisation, and that's what they're counting on.

“I just can't imagine them showing any interest in that conversation”.

Changes to Meta that push ‘political’ content into the feeds of people who would never support the Green Party or women politicians and a global rise in white supremacy has also added to the problem.

So if your job exposes you to the worst humans abusing you online and the abuse you are facing is pushed by men with a lot of power - what do you do? Will women and non-binary politicians be forced off social media? Will they be forced out of politics altogether?

“I haven't answered the question of whether I stay on social media or not. Back in the day, I used to have pretty good policy chats and debates with people online, even on Twitter, and I felt like we could get somewhere and we could maybe come to some space of better understanding,” she trails off.

It’s definitely no longer like that. If a post wishing people an enjoyable Waitangi Day and talking about your kids being sick unleashes a vile wave of misogyny and racism, what’s left?

“It does seem now, that it's a lot more ad-hominem attacks. That is discouraging. Nobody really wants to engage with that, because how do you engage with that? There's no point in me replying to people if all they're saying is I should be wearing makeup or something meaner than that.”

‘Meaner than that’ is the threats, the men with guns in their profile pictures. In the past, Julie Anne has had photos of her home published online along with death threats. It’s easy to say ‘ignore the comments’ if you haven’t had to fear for your family’s safety.

“The level of kind of hate, you do wonder, could I become a target for someone? Because we're very accessible [as MPs]. There was one person who said, it's my electorate MP. And I did see that he had pictures of himself with a gun. He wasn't saying anything overtly threatening, but it doesn't make you feel safe.”

It feels like a warranted fear. Because how rational and sane is someone who spends hours on Facebook trolling a politician they don’t even know?

Acting Race Relations Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo said in 2023 that women politicians needed protection against abuse and violence directed at them and their whānau. Back in 2023, we thought it couldn’t get worse - yet in 2025, it’s everywhere.

“There's nothing logical about these type of responses. It's clear that people are very unhappy. They're very angry. They really don't like me. They're not going to like me,” she says.

“So [you think], well, this is slightly unhinged behaviour. What other type of behaviour might happen in real life? And would I get a warning? Would I know?”

“That’s something that I think we should all be concerned about because we don't want there to be physical threats and violence or risk in our political system. Because that really suppresses democracy and representation.”

“It also discourages people from being able to participate in a conversation in the spheres that are now the dominant spheres for public discourse,” she says.

So what can be done? What is the answer?

“I guess the number one thing that makes me think it's still worth doing it is that the reason they're doing this is because they want us to stop. And they know that with women in particular, if they attack them enough, they can try to intimidate them from standing or speaking up.”

“When I look at the mayor of Wellington City (Tory Whanau), who has actually delivered on everything she said she would do, like the pipes and the cycle ways, and has actually done a bloody good job, and she's come under all sorts of attack that male politicians would never face.”

“They're putting this pressure on because they're hoping they can intimidate her from standing again,” Julie Anne says.

“That's why we all just have to hold each other together. The reason why they're out there trying to send all this hate this way is because they're trying to get us to stop.”

“No matter what I do, they'll find a reason to criticise me, so maybe it will encourage me to do more of it, because they want me to do less.

It takes resilience to be able to face these attacks, it takes community too - a village around you and people standing up and saying: This is not OK.

Now isn’t the time to back down, it’s the time to stand tall. Julie Anne isn’t giving up.

“I think that we have to do more. We’re right on the cusp of building a better world, and we can do that.”