Controversial anti-transgender activist Posie Parker claims her group faces a $10,000 bill for hiring security in New Zealand after bad publicity of her tour in Australia.
Parker - whose real name is Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull - is planning to speak in Auckland and Wellington this weekend. She's a controversial British speaker who started the "Standing for Women" group that campaigns against transgender rights.
But she claims security for the event is going to cost $10,000 because of the difficulty in finding a company that will do the job. She said she needs six security guards.
"Companies have cancelled on us in the morning and it has cost us so much more money. Some of the sound system people have cancelled, they didn't want to rent it to us. Even the security.
"Then what happens is you have to find something last minute. They understand your desperation and then the prices go up."
She said a company in Wellington refused as they "just won't protect us". She claimed her group had been "badly defamed" and "most people really hate women".
Parker then begged her followers to donate money to her.
When challenged on why exactly she needed $10,000 from fans on RNZ on Friday morning, she elaborated, saying "it is staggering that people won't protect women. It is horrendous."
She said security had been hired, but "they decided because of the lies spread in Australia, that they won't protect us anymore".
"I have to pay exponentially more to another company. Because they have to travel, because it's last minute. All sorts of reasons."
Parker was asked what the lies spread in Australia were. She responded by saying she meant who she was said to have connections with, such as a group of neo-Nazis who attended a Melbourne event.
While the group was there with a 'destroy paedo freaks' sign and Parker has previously had connections with far-right figures like Jean-François Gariépy (though she's also reportedly said white supremacy "has no place in a civilised society"), she denied she was supported by Nazis.
Interviewer Kim Hill asked: "Why do you think they were supporting you?"
"They weren't supporting me at all. Why would you say that?" Parker replied.
Hill said: "Because they were carrying a banner calling transgender women filthy paedophiles".
Parker said: "Okay, so why is that anything to do with women?"
Hill said: "Because you are an opponent of trans women."
"I don't want men in women's spaces," Parker said.
"When women speak up against men in women's spaces, these are the sorts of things that happen to women. We get tarred with just horrendous ideologies. Women across New Zealand are very, very afraid."
Hill put it to Parker that women in New Zealand aren't "very, very afraid".
Much of the interview featured Parker making anti-transgender comments and speaking about not recognising non-binary individuals.
Asked why a lot of her support comes from the extreme right-wing, Parker called it a "disgusting question" and a "preposterous thing to say".
"I don't think men who believe in the far right, who call themselves Nazis, give an absolute stuff for women's rights."
In her social media video, Parker said in Australia she had to have a police escort.
"[People] saying the most terrible things about me does actually have an impact on those around me. I just won't be deturbed… deturbed? I can't even think straight (sic)."
She also responded to a coalition of rainbow groups' application for a judicial review of Immigration NZ's decision not to block her entry into New Zealand.
"What are you afraid of? What are these people afraid of if we speak. Like seriously, why would you want to stop someone talking?" she said.
"If I'm so terrifying and terrible and say these awful things why wouldn't you want to hear me say it so everybody else can hear me say it, so everybody else can agree they're terrible things to say."
The rainbow groups have also asked for an interim order stopping her from coming to New Zealand while the judicial review is considered.
"The facts in this case are clear, and the Minister's failure to act is putting our communities in danger," said Ahi Wi-Hongi, Executive Director of Gender Minorities Aotearoa and spokesperson for the groups.
"We are not opposing freedom of speech, we are opposing the measurable threat to public order and the safety of transgender people."
Immigration NZ reviewed her case earlier this week after violence erupted at the rally she held in Melbourne last weekend. Police officers were allegedly assaulted and people were arrested.
However, the agency found "there is no reason to believe that she is, or is likely to be, a threat or risk to the public order or public interest," general manager Richard Owen said on Wednesday.
"As a result we have determined that Ms Keen-Minshull does not meet the high threshold to be considered an excluded person under Section 16 of the Immigration Act 2009."
The Act says no visa or entry permission may be granted if the minister believes someone is likely to be a threat or risk to security, public order or public interest, or is a designated terrorist.
Immigration Minister Michael Wood at the time said he would prefer she "never set foot in New Zealand".
"I find many of her views repugnant, and am concerned by the way in which she courts some of the most vile people and groups around including white supremacists," Wood said.
"The decision on whether to suspend her NZeTA sits with Immigration New Zealand and they have assessed that she meets the criteria set out in the Immigration Act and regulations. This assessment took into account the events in Melbourne that occurred last weekend. I have been advised that this case does not meet the threshold for Ministerial intervention."
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