When someone arrived at Teviot Valley Community Board member Gill Booth’s house with a t-shirt saying “miss-information”, she knew she’d hit home.

She was now getting used to having it thrown at her, like an accusation, that she supported Voices For Freedom, “but all I wanted was freedom,” she told a public webinar organised by the group on Thursday night (July 17).

A resident in the district for the past 40 years, Gill might have got the lowest votes out of all the community board members at the last election, but she got her foot in the door.

And she said people started to listen. She put out fliers around the community sharing her opposition to what she described as the theft of the country’s water (3 Waters).

The webinar was organised by Voices For Freedom founder Claire Deeks, and Gill said those supporting the group at the last election were “depicted as rats chewing our way through the ballot box”.

There were cartoons of the group in the media mocking them, which according to Claire got worse the further south you went.

But the group said there was no “big scandal” from their end - just a platform for people to have a voice - no political or obvious affiliation to anything, except “freedom”.

Voices for Freedom was founded in December 2020, according to the group’s website, as "a non-political organisation focused on protecting New Zealanders' fundamental human rights with a particular focus on freedom of speech, health/medical freedom and all freedoms under attack from an overzealous and oppressive Covid-19 response".

Gill warned anyone intending on standing in the Local Elections 2025, if they didn’t have a thick skin, to find a way of supporting someone else who was campaigning, “because they need all the support they can get”. She said there was a place for everybody.

Gill was supported on the webinar by Southland District councillor Jaspreet Boparai, who also felt the community through the media treated her like “a crazy United Nations nut bar”.

Jaspreet told the group that her time as an elected member had been a steep learning curve.

“I have never read so much in my life,” she said, referring to the speed with which the legislation changed, between the Labour and National parties.

Gill added that after the lockdowns it was time for elected members to walk the talk, and she said “representing the community, all of a sudden things got a whole lot harder”.

Both women agreed that standing on your own to have a voice was empowering, but hard when making decisions.

Gill felt that her time on the community board and answering to Central Otago District Council was difficult, saying they were always making the final decisions, “and a lot was hidden from you - a lot of background current”.

Using ‘districtisation’ as an example, both Teviot and Cromwell community boards were against it, “but then the council stormed ahead with it anyway”, she said. 

Both women encouraged potential candidates to just do their best and remember who they were representing, “because you just don’t want to let people down”, Jaspreet said.

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