Watch: 'We're not white supremacists' - Alt-right speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern have their say after Auckland event was cancelled

August 4, 2018

Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux have released a video in response to their speaking event in Auckland being cancelled, saying they are not "fascists" or "white supremacists".

The video was posted on Mr Molyneux's YouTube account, titled "Event Canceled: New Zealand Is Hostile To Free Speech," and features the pair talking about the cancellation for about 14 minutes.

Ms Southern says she was "very excited to meet people here" and believed that Mayor of Auckland Phil Goff's decision to stop government venues from hosting them was due to "strong forces".

"I truly believe that there were strong forces involved, whether it be government calling this guy, threats, the threat of his windows being smashed, maybe the police telling him your whole place is going to be destroyed if you hold this," Ms Southern said.

Mr Goff was on TVNZ 1's Q+A programme last month, saying Regional Facilities Auckland "were concerned the speech that these two individuals were engaged in was deliberately provocative to some of our ethnic communities and our faith communities".

"I'm not against free speech. I simply made the call to agree with Regional Facilities Auckland that we should not be facilitating their use of our venues, and that's the right call," Mr Goff said.

The pair arrived last Thursday and were photographed posing as "Power Rangers" under a Māori carving in the arrivals area of Auckland Airport.

"They were apparently upset because we did some goofy Power Ranger stances under a statue coming in," Mr Molyneux said.

"The media do want us to say these things - they want their perfect villain," Ms Southern said.

"They're desperate for villains ... we're just here to have conversations that are actually just really important for the future of this country.

"It's really disheartening but hopefully this will wake people up in New Zealand."

When Southern was asked about her views against diversity in an interview with Newshub yesterday, she compared her opinions to historical revolutionaries.

"The suffragettes would've been considered to be against the modern status quo at the time," she said.

"Individuals who criticised Christianity hundreds of years ago would've been prosecuted under blasphemy laws.

"I now criticise the religion of diversity and I am considered [to be] committing hate speech."

She claimed New Zealanders accept "the diverse view" that "women should be stoned for the crime of being raped".

"That's what multiculturalism is, you accept all cultures."

"The West" is the "most beautiful culture ever created in the world", Ms Southern said.

Molyneux says in the video they regret the event was cancelled, saying "I was going to make an argument of a very passionate case for free speech".

"People need these ogres...they're sort of rusty knights in search of imaginary dragons," Mr Molyneux said.

"We're not white supremacists or fascists," Ms Southern said.

During the pair's tour of Australia they made disparaging remarks about Aboriginal Australians.

Tāmaki Anti Fascist Action spokesperson Sina Brown-Davis said "they were mocking Aboriginal culture and launching tirades against multiculturalism and Islam ... just really offensive, dehumanising depictions of indigenous Australians".

Southern says she would have loved to "even go outside and talk to some of the protesters".

"If your opinions are superior to mine, I will change my mind if you give me the evidence," she said.

Despite the cancellation, Mr Molyneux called the New Zealand event a "success".

"We had five incredibly successful events - the success of this event in New Zealand is still a little abstract but I think will still materialise over time," he said.

Earlier this year Southern was banned from entering the UK on the grounds of her involvement in distributing racist material in Luton, according to BBC.

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