The Sensible Sentencing Trust has made changes to the billboards that made headlines today in Auckland Central and Wellington Central. The Green Party complained to the billboard company asserting copyright breaches and demanded that the image of Tamatha Paul be removed because they own the copyright to her official candidate photo.

Spokesperson for The Sensible Sentencing Trust Louise Parsons says:

“We were happy to make the image changes, but find it telling that they are trying to have our billboards taken down when they simply state what their MPs advocate for - the ‘radical abolition of the police’.”

“There’s also the irony that the Green Party currently has a Bill before Parliament to allow parody and satire of copyrighted material.”

The Bill, in the name of Green MP Kahurangi Carter is the Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill. In a Greens press release from November 2024, Kahurangi Carter says:

“In New Zealand, we’re renowned for our love of spoofs, parodies, and dark humour. But right now, our dry wit can get us into hot water. Artists are currently vulnerable to legal threat for making satire….It’s a little ironic that we, a nation of quintessential dry-humour lovers, can’t lampoon and parody with the rest of the world without risk of breaching copyright.”

Parsons says:

“The Greens are more concerned about copyright protections than about protecting victims of crimes. They want copyright laws to protect them when it suits them, just like they turn to the same police the want to abolish when they feel unsafe.”