THE MORSE CODE

Portrait of a protester

Valerie Morse was born in New Zealand. She then cut her ideological teeth in the Land of the Free before returning to her spiritual birthplace of Aotearoa.

On 1 October 2024, Activist Morse shouted at Resource Minister Shane Jones “You are going to rip this country’s heart out and sell it off to fossil fuel companies”. That’s Morse on the right, shrieking into the loud hailer.

Morse was part of a group of activists protesting against the current Government’s proposed legislation to reverse the ban on issuing new licences to prospect for oil and gas. (That’s the damaging ban instigated without public consultation by former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern; just one of her traitorous efforts to self-aggrandize on her global stage, at New Zealand’s expense.)

Jones told the 1 October protesters “You’re being extreme, you’re losing sight of the facts, you’re being hysterical, and you’re being hyperbolic, but you’re entitled to.”

These robust exchanges played out in Lambton Quay, Wellington.

Kindred Fighters for Freedom

Without doubt Jones and Morse have their differences. However, ironically, they are both powerful forces in support of New Zealanders’ freedoms of speech and expression.

Jones is as close of you can get to a free speech/expression absolutist. He lets his words fly, unfiltered, and invites others to do the same.

In 2007, Morse burned a New Zealand flag. She did so in the grounds of Victoria University’s law school, as a protest against New Zealand’s involvement back then in US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Morse’s protest was adjacent to Wellington’s Cenotaph, where an Anzac Day dawn service was taking place.

For her flag burning, Morse was charged with “offensive behaviour” under New Zealand’s Summary Offences Act 1981, which creates an offence for anyone “who…in any public place, behaves in an offensive…manner”. The District Court convicted her of that offence. On appeal, the High Court and Court of Appeal upheld her conviction. But in October 2010, the Supreme Court overturned her conviction, basically because the Morse’s flag burning was protected by New Zealand’s Bill of Rights Act and did not have the potential to disrupt public order.

In the same month as the Supreme Court acquitted her, Morse was due to appear in Court on charges relating to gun-heavy activities in the Ureweras, conducted with other curious creatures including colourful character Tame Iti. In 2005, Iti had been convicted of firearms offences for shooting a flag (reportedly the Australian flag) in protest at the Government’s treatment of his Tūhoe tribe, convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2007.

In her multitudes of Court cases, Morse has often been represented by libertarian lawyer Michael Bott who - I can assure you, gentle readers - is a good bastard.

Professional protester

There’s basically nothing within her ideological world cross hairs that Morse hasn’t protested against, mainly with her fellow travelers at Peace Action Wellington.

Her pronouncements include the following prime morsels:

“RIMPAC [Rim of the Pacific] is a giant show of imperial force led by the US that takes place in and around the Hawai’ian islands - land that was illegally stolen from the Kanaka Ma’oli people and which remains occupied by the US.”

“We know that a just transition to a beautiful, low-carbon, Te Tiriti compliant Aotearoa is 100% possible. Yet successive governments have failed again and again to put the collective future of the people of Aotearoa above private profit. For the air we breathe, for the kai moana we gather, and for the places we call home - the people are saying enough is enough. It’s time to rise up for climate justice.”

"These troops are serving the interests of the feudal class in Tonga, while crushing people's desire for change. We stand in solidarity with the people's resistance in Tonga and support them in their struggle for self-determination."

“It would have been quite easy to take the decision to stay out of RIMPAC given what is happening in Palestine. That Christopher Luxon and Judith Collins have not done so shows that they lack even a basic moral compass.”

"New Zealand is an incredibly vulnerable place. We've got some of the most unique flora and fauna in the world and if we release GE into the environment we just simply have no idea what the effects are going to be long term. It's interesting that the insurance industry has said that they will not cover people for GE risk and yet that risk is then being passed on to New Zealand as a whole and we're going to end up essentially paying for GE contamination in our environment."

It’s unclear where Morse gets her money. She certainly dresses nicely.

Despite claiming to be an anarchist and not having brown skin, Morse could in fact be what we used to describe as a “Trustafarian” (radical fueled by family money). Morse appears to have been born with a loud hailer in the mouth, but perhaps there’s a silver spoon in there too. Who knows or cares.

Morse Clones

Valerie Morse is therefore harmless enough. The main thing about Morse and her ilk that mildly irritates me is that it’s all so damn predictable. Hercules Morse’s doggie companions in Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy are celebrated for the differences between them, but the Valerie Morses of this world are all ideologically identical. Without looking up what Morse thinks about mining, we know, don’t we - beyond a shadow of a doubt – what she thinks of that activity.

Our Val operates in plain sight. Some might even be led to conclude she’s a compulsive attention seeker. But there are thousands of Morse Clones who share Morse’s subversive inclinations but who operate incognito in central and local government, on the public purse. They’re the ones who really ought to concern us.

There was a bold lady called Valerie Morse/She’s mad, of course