ACT’s Claim of “Victory” at Auckland University is a Far-Right Assault on Our Democracy: We Must Fight Back Now
Here in Aotearoa, the far right has breached the walls of our universities. As I write this piece, I am well aware of the concerted effort at silencing critical academic speech: political interference threatens not only our positions as academics, but the very foundations of academic freedom in this country. The ACT Party is celebrating a supposed “victory” at the University of Auckland.
Their prize? The gutting of the Waipapa Taumata Rau (WTR) courses—the core, compulsory first-year offerings on Aotearoa New Zealand history, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te ao Māori.
ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar now goes further, demanding student refunds for supposed waste of credits. What she frames as liberation for students is in fact political influence, designed to delegitimize Māori knowledge and dismantle the democratic function of our universities.
Now most new courses go through consideration of student feedback, which further shapes the delivery of the course, the course design, and the placing of the course in the core structure.
University of Auckland's vice chancellor Professor Dawn Freshwater noted, "“As we do with all courses, we aim to use staff and student feedback to strengthen how they are delivered...To that end, and in response to that feedback, a proposal will be discussed at senate on September 15 recommending that WTR become an optional choice within general education for most programmes, rather than a core requirement."
A U.S.-Style Far-Right Invasion
Do not mistake this for a parochial spat. This is a chapter of a global script, lifted straight from the authoritarian playbook of Project 2025, the U.S. far-right’s blueprint for dismantling democracy. There, “woke” curricula are demonized, diversity programs dismantled, accreditation weaponized. Here, ACT and FSU mimic the same script: railing against “compulsory ideology,” claiming Māori content harms international student markets, pushing for “neutrality” laws to muzzle universities.
I have seen this script before. In Florida, book bans criminalize teachers. In Hungary, critical universities have been dismantled. In India, academics are surveilled, harassed, silenced. The tactic is universal: starve universities, shame them, strip autonomy, then rebuild them as ideological instruments of the powerful.
This is not free speech. It is not neutrality. It is not choice. It is a hostile takeover.
Against the Illusion of “Choice”
The far right now cloaks its assault in the language of “choice.” They say: making WTR courses optional empowers students. They claim: compulsion is coercion. They insist: true freedom lies in letting students decide.
This is a lie.
Universities are not marketplaces where students simply purchase whatever pleases them. They are institutions of learning, entrusted with shaping the next generation of citizens. Compulsory courses are not unusual—they are foundational. Nobody demands the “choice” to opt out of statistics in a science degree, or anatomy in medicine, or evidence law in legal studies. Compulsory components exist because a society, through its universities, decides what knowledge is necessary to function responsibly in a profession and as a citizen.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te ao Māori are not electives to be weighed against convenience. They are foundational to the ethical and democratic life of Aotearoa. Making them “optional” is not giving students choice—it is stripping them of the right to receive the full education that a democratic society requires.
The truth is simple: what is compulsory is for universities to decide, not politicians. This principle is enshrined in law, in the Education and Training Act 2020. To override it is to shred the autonomy of our universities and to collapse the critic-and-conscience role they are mandated to serve.
Freedom of choice here is a far-right dog whistle. It is a weapon to fragment curricula, delegitimize decolonizing knowledge, and weaken the democratic responsibilities of education.
Academic Freedom Under Siege
I know this assault personally. At Massey, I have faced sustained political pressure for championing decolonizing communication. My tenure, my very position, is constantly threatened. And I am not alone. Around the globe, academics teaching about race, gender, climate justice, and colonization are hounded, surveilled, and silenced.
When politicians dictate curricula, scholarship dies. When fear replaces inquiry, the classroom becomes an echo chamber for power. The Auckland Senate’s 75% vote to dilute WTR courses was not an act of reasoned debate—it was capitulation under political pressure. Parmar’s refund demand is not policy—it is financial terror, designed to intimidate universities into submission.
Let this stand, and the consequences are clear. Climate justice will be labelled “radical activism.” Gender studies will be dismissed as “identity politics.” Treaty history will be erased as “bias.”
That is not education. That is authoritarian propaganda.
Democracy Itself is on the Line
WTR courses were not indoctrination. They were democracy in action—spaces where young people learned Te Tiriti, grappled with colonization, and confronted what it means to build a bicultural, just society.
By dismantling them, ACT undermines the very mandate of the Education Act. They erode the firewall between state power and universities. They hollow out the role of higher education as critic and conscience.
This is authoritarian creep. Today, Māori knowledge is the target. Tomorrow, it will be climate science. The day after, it will be journalism. And then, nothing will remain.
Democracy dies when education ceases to challenge power.
Our Line in the Sand
We must treat this moment with the gravity it demands. What happened at Auckland is not the end—it is the beginning. Each “victory” fuels the far right’s hunger for more.
If we do not fight back, neutrality audits will follow. Funding cuts will follow. Curriculum censorship will follow. The critic-and-conscience role of universities will be erased.
We must: Defend WTR courses as essential, well-funded, and woven into all degrees.
Protect the Education Act through courts, unions, and mass mobilization.
Amplify Māori voices in leading the defense of decolonizing curricula.
Mobilize across society—students, academics, unions, iwi, communities—to resist the far-right capture of our universities.
This is a battle for the soul of Aotearoa. If we remain silent, we lose everything.
Stand Up Now
As I watch the global far-right creep and the U.S. playbook being replicated here in Aotearoa, I write with clarity: silence is complicity. The language of institutional neutrality is the very tool the far right uses to destroy institutional autonomy.
The far right wants us cowed, fragmented, and afraid. We must instead be unbreakable.
This is our line in the sand. To defend universities is to defend democracy. To defend Te Tiriti is to defend the soul of Aotearoa. To resist the far right is to safeguard the future.
To defend academic freedom is to send a powerful message to the far-right: That we will counter it.
However, what the ACT party's organizing around the targeting of the course demonstrates is that the course has become a point of political point-making. That the ACT Party feels so emboldened to interfere into processes of institutional autonomy and seeks to influence outcomes stinks of political interference. As we see in the US, such political interference is an authoritarian strike on academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the very democratic project of Aotearoa.
A U.S.-Style Far-Right Invasion
Do not mistake this for a parochial spat. This is a chapter of a global script, lifted straight from the authoritarian playbook of Project 2025, the U.S. far-right’s blueprint for dismantling democracy. There, “woke” curricula are demonized, diversity programs dismantled, accreditation weaponized. Here, ACT and FSU mimic the same script: railing against “compulsory ideology,” claiming Māori content harms international student markets, pushing for “neutrality” laws to muzzle universities.
I have seen this script before. In Florida, book bans criminalize teachers. In Hungary, critical universities have been dismantled. In India, academics are surveilled, harassed, silenced. The tactic is universal: starve universities, shame them, strip autonomy, then rebuild them as ideological instruments of the powerful.
This is not free speech. It is not neutrality. It is not choice. It is a hostile takeover.
Against the Illusion of “Choice”
The far right now cloaks its assault in the language of “choice.” They say: making WTR courses optional empowers students. They claim: compulsion is coercion. They insist: true freedom lies in letting students decide.
This is a lie.
Universities are not marketplaces where students simply purchase whatever pleases them. They are institutions of learning, entrusted with shaping the next generation of citizens. Compulsory courses are not unusual—they are foundational. Nobody demands the “choice” to opt out of statistics in a science degree, or anatomy in medicine, or evidence law in legal studies. Compulsory components exist because a society, through its universities, decides what knowledge is necessary to function responsibly in a profession and as a citizen.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te ao Māori are not electives to be weighed against convenience. They are foundational to the ethical and democratic life of Aotearoa. Making them “optional” is not giving students choice—it is stripping them of the right to receive the full education that a democratic society requires.
The truth is simple: what is compulsory is for universities to decide, not politicians. This principle is enshrined in law, in the Education and Training Act 2020. To override it is to shred the autonomy of our universities and to collapse the critic-and-conscience role they are mandated to serve.
Freedom of choice here is a far-right dog whistle. It is a weapon to fragment curricula, delegitimize decolonizing knowledge, and weaken the democratic responsibilities of education.
Academic Freedom Under Siege
I know this assault personally. At Massey, I have faced sustained political pressure for championing decolonizing communication. My tenure, my very position, is constantly threatened. And I am not alone. Around the globe, academics teaching about race, gender, climate justice, and colonization are hounded, surveilled, and silenced.
When politicians dictate curricula, scholarship dies. When fear replaces inquiry, the classroom becomes an echo chamber for power. The Auckland Senate’s 75% vote to dilute WTR courses was not an act of reasoned debate—it was capitulation under political pressure. Parmar’s refund demand is not policy—it is financial terror, designed to intimidate universities into submission.
Let this stand, and the consequences are clear. Climate justice will be labelled “radical activism.” Gender studies will be dismissed as “identity politics.” Treaty history will be erased as “bias.”
That is not education. That is authoritarian propaganda.
Democracy Itself is on the Line
WTR courses were not indoctrination. They were democracy in action—spaces where young people learned Te Tiriti, grappled with colonization, and confronted what it means to build a bicultural, just society.
By dismantling them, ACT undermines the very mandate of the Education Act. They erode the firewall between state power and universities. They hollow out the role of higher education as critic and conscience.
This is authoritarian creep. Today, Māori knowledge is the target. Tomorrow, it will be climate science. The day after, it will be journalism. And then, nothing will remain.
Democracy dies when education ceases to challenge power.
Our Line in the Sand
We must treat this moment with the gravity it demands. What happened at Auckland is not the end—it is the beginning. Each “victory” fuels the far right’s hunger for more.
If we do not fight back, neutrality audits will follow. Funding cuts will follow. Curriculum censorship will follow. The critic-and-conscience role of universities will be erased.
We must: Defend WTR courses as essential, well-funded, and woven into all degrees.
Protect the Education Act through courts, unions, and mass mobilization.
Amplify Māori voices in leading the defense of decolonizing curricula.
Mobilize across society—students, academics, unions, iwi, communities—to resist the far-right capture of our universities.
This is a battle for the soul of Aotearoa. If we remain silent, we lose everything.
Stand Up Now
As I watch the global far-right creep and the U.S. playbook being replicated here in Aotearoa, I write with clarity: silence is complicity. The language of institutional neutrality is the very tool the far right uses to destroy institutional autonomy.
The far right wants us cowed, fragmented, and afraid. We must instead be unbreakable.
This is our line in the sand. To defend universities is to defend democracy. To defend Te Tiriti is to defend the soul of Aotearoa. To resist the far right is to safeguard the future.
To defend academic freedom is to send a powerful message to the far-right: That we will counter it.
Now is not the time to retreat to the ivory tower. Now is the time to connect with our communities and public spaces that are raising the powerful calls to justice.
The time to fight is now.