Wellington nurses case gains momentum as Free Speech Union joins the fight
Here’s a great little update. The Free Speech Union is working on the Wellington nurse’s story and defending her right to speak out. An email about her case has just been sent to all FSU members - which can be read below. Great to see the Union standing behind her when it actually counts.
This fight to protect your speech rights is not abstract. It’s affecting Kiwis individually and daily.
You may remember one of our members who has her livelihood in the balance because the Nursing Council is coming after her opinions, so we need your help.
After more than 25 years as a registered nurse, she now faces serious charges brought against her in the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal by the Nursing Council.
These charges relate to a complaint made over content she posted on her personal X account in her spare time. These posts expressed her views on a range of topics, including the COVID-19 virus, abortion, gender identity, and Te Pāti Māori MPs.
The Nursing Council is using these posts as evidence that the nurse has engaged in professional misconduct. We disagree, and together, we need to push back.
The Tribunal has a range of penalties it can hand out, including cancelling the practitioner’s registration, suspending registration for up to 3 years, fining the practitioner up to $30,000 and ordering payment of the costs and expenses associated with the disciplinary process. These penalties have the potential to financially cripple someone.
You don’t have to agree with the nurses opinions to think it’s wrong for her livelihood to be on the line because of them. We cannot let this stand.
A member of the public who saw the nurses posts online, complained to the Nursing Council, and then refused to do anything more. Shows you how concerned he was...!
However, the Nursing Council was not to be deterred, and went through the nurses X account themselves in order to ‘bulk up’ the case.
Not only is the Nursing Council bringing charges against the nurse, but it has also applied to the Tribunal for the nurse to be suspended in the interim until the final determination of the complaint. The Nursing Council asserts that the nurse’s conduct poses a risk of serious harm to the public, and the Tribunal needs to step in to protect the health or safety of members of the public.
The only evidence they have to support this is her posts on X.
Do the Nursing Council’s actions here actually increase your trust in nurses and the medical profession? Surely we can trust medical professionals to set aside their personal opinions and provide the best care to every patient unless there is evidence to the contrary. Isn’t that simply what professionalism means?
Douglas Brown from our governing council is representing the nurse before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, with our Senior In-house Counsel Hannah leading our work on this case. This work is not cheap, but it is necessary.
The Nursing Council is represented by a King’s Counsel (KC). KCs are highly distinguished barristers who typically work on cases that are especially complex, significant, or in the public interest. They are very expensive, charging much higher rates than a normal lawyer. Why is the Nursing Council treating this case with such high priority that they are willing to spend so much money on it?
If we let this case slide, who will be silenced next? How many of us are already self-censoring because we don’t want some regulator or our professional bodies coming after us?
It’s not all bad news though, and our hard work pays off.
This year, we defended the speech rights of a teacher who was brought before the Teaching Council over a comment she made online.
It was a criticism of the Teaching Council’s submission made on behalf of all teachers opposing the Treaty Principles Bill. A member of the public had reported her for allegedly breaching the Code of Conduct.
But this week, the Teaching Council contacted us to say that they closed their investigation. This is the right outcome.
Teachers, like nurses, do not give up their speech rights when they become qualified.
When you support the FSU, you’re not just supporting individuals like the Wellington nurse or this teacher, you’re ensuring that your voice remains free, and I’m not sure that there is a better investment.
If we don’t stand up for the speech rights of others today, especially those we disagree with, it could be our voices silenced tomorrow. Remember: we are not defending opinions, we are defending the right to express opinions, your right to speak.
I’ve just launched a weekend-only pop-up deal for all Matua Kahurangi annual subscriptions. I got Black Friday wrong and thought it was last week, so instead of waiting for the 28th I’m giving you something better right now. For this weekend, annual subscriptions are 70% off. That brings it down to less than $2 per month for full access to everything I publish.
As a paid subscriber you’ll be able to join the conversation, read every archived article, unlock all new paywalled stories, take part in Subscriber Stories on Saturday, and even DM me directly with questions, ideas or stories you want shared with thousands. This deal ends midnight Sunday, so if you’ve been thinking about supporting the work, now’s the time to jump in.
Good comments Matua. The FSU in general, and this case specifically, are great to support. This Nursing Council's case against Catherine Simpson is shameful. We all know that the nursing guild has been captured by te-tiriti wokesters, and that the nurses' union uses members' money to peddle their own anti-colonial, pro-Labour bullshit, but this case is a next-level attack on free speech. She does not try to pass herself off as a representative of any hospital, nor of any nursing guild. They are her personal opinions and she is entitled to express them. If she was posting KKK/Neo-Nazi crap and making serious threats of violence, perhaps her 'fit & proper person' to be a nurse test might fail upon review. But these comments are reasonable and personal. Had she made a pro-Maori post, arguing the need to de-colonise health care cos of evil white folk, then she would not face any such scrutiny.
It is a truly fucked up situation we now find ourselves in, where the double standards of conduct are so blatantly obvious. Catherine's crime it would seem (most likely) is to be a white person.
Excellent to know the FSU are giving support to this case. A great outcome for one of the first of your subscriber stories.