The Free Speech Union is today writing to Police asking why an Auckland woman was telephoned at home, with Police calling her mother first, and then called into a station to be told a Facebook post was "unkind" and "unwelcoming to the Indian community". No offence has been alleged. No threat of violence has been alleged.
According to public reporting over the past 48 hours, Renee-Rose Schwenke posted a photo captioned "Welcome to New India thanks to Luxsingh", a comment on the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement. Other Facebook users complained. Police rang her mother, then called her into a station, where a senior sergeant told her the post was "unkind" and "racist". No charges have been laid.
This is the practice Police told the Free Speech Union they had changed. Until late 2024, Police could attach a "hate" marker to a person’s file over things that were not a crime, simply because someone had taken offence. After pressure from the Free Speech Union and more than 12,000 New Zealanders, Assistant Police Commissioner Jill Rogers met with the Free Speech Union on 15 April 2025 and Police later confirmed in writing that the test for tagging non-criminal incidents as hate-motivated had been changed to an objective standard, effective 1 November 2024. Police told the Free Speech Union that historic flags applied before that date would be deleted, and reporting at the time indicated monthly tagging dropped from around 100 a month to fewer than five.
"On the public reporting of this case, no offence is alleged, no threat is alleged, and the senior sergeant’s stated reason was that the post was unkind and unwelcoming. That is exactly the feelings-only test Police told the country they had moved past," said Jillaine Heather, CEO of the Free Speech Union.
The Free Speech Union is asking Police three questions today, with an Official Information Act request to follow:
Is the new objective standard, effective 1 November 2024, still in force?
On what evidence did this case meet that standard, and has a "hate" marker been added to her file?
What other record, if any, has been created against her?
This is not the first time the police appear to have overstepped the mark. In February 2025, a senior officer in Hamilton told the pro-life group Grace for Life that "any person who complains about anything to us, if they feel that is offensive, that is an offence". Police later apologised in writing, accepting the officer’s interpretation "was incorrect". The Independent Police Conduct Authority subsequently confirmed the officer had "significantly mis-stated the law".
"Once is an officer getting it wrong. Twice is a question about training, supervision and culture," Heather said. "We are not defending or attacking any one social media post. We are defending the principle that you do not get a phone call to your mother and a summons to a police station because strangers online took offence."
Police are continuing to build out hate-crime infrastructure within the $10.4 million Te Raranga (The Weave) programme, even though the Law Commission’s hate crime report has not yet been released and Parliament has not legislated standalone hate crime offences.
"If a senior sergeant can still call a citizen and her mother because a Facebook post was unkind, the policy on paper has not landed in practice. New Zealanders deserve to know which it is."
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