Liz Gunn

We've written about Liz Gunn before. For a refresher, she's a former lawyer, then broadcaster/presenter on Television New Zealand (Breakfast and Good Morning shows) and Radio New Zealand. She disappeared from view for a long time, but recently popped up as an anti-vax conspiracy theorist.

She appears to be deep down the rabbit hole.

Her explanation of earthquakes were “Mother Nature” expressing her displeasure at then prime minister Jacinda Adern's Covid 19 vaccine announcements. She appeared at the anti-vax, anti-government, “freedom” protests at parliament last year, and most recently, fronted the opposition to a baby, known only as “Baby W”, receiving blood products during a life-saving open heart operation. In her opinion, blood products from the general pool would be “tainted” because it was from donors who'd been vaccinated against Covid.

All that seems to have died down, and we've not heard much more about the baby at the centre of the case. The medical authorities had taken court-appointed guardianship of the baby so that the life-saving procedures could be carried out. That guardianship expired in late January and we've not heard anything further. Certainly not that the baby has suffered ill effects from being given blood from vaccinated individuals.

Anyway, over this past weekend it's been reported that Gunn was arrested at Auckland International Airport. Her arrest has not been confirmed by police, but it's been reported in the media (here and here), and recounted on Counterspin Media. Now, we're not normally in the habit of crediting Counterspin Media with factual accuracy, but when it's one of their own they're reporting on, I think we can give it some credence.

According to reports, she and a camera operator were arrested for assault, trespass, and resisting arrest. According to Counterspin Media's Telegram channel, Gunn was handcuffed by police and trespassed from the airport for two years.

It appears that she, and her camera operator were at the airport attempting to film the arrival of a family from Tokelau. This is her latest cause. The parents - Ana and Mahelino Patelesio - were in Tokelau, visiting their homeland, from New Zealand where they usually reside.

Tokelau is a tiny atoll island group in the South Pacific, with a population of around 1500 people (as of the 2016 census). During the Covid pandemic (which I'd point out we're still in!) Tokelauans made the collective decision to vaccinate. As of late last year the vaccination rate in the island group was about 96%, and they'd done an excellent job of preventing community transmission of Covid.

But the Patalesio family were anti-vaxxers, and had been involved in the parliament protests. They were placed on house arrest, known as tunoa, in Tokelau for over a year for refusing to be vaccinated. The tunoa was authorised by the village council, which has authority over citizens. There are no jails on Tokelau, so tunoa is used instead, basically ordering the family to stay at home.

Gunn has been interviewing the family on her YouTube channel - FreeNZ, (which, incidentally, has only 286 subscribers) with the most recent interview being a couple of weeks ago.

From what I can see (and not wanting to suffer through hours of excruciating interviewing - even at 2X speed) Gunn has been promoting the family as victims of tyranny.

The family managed to leave Tokelau and travel to Samoa, then back to New Zealand.

As of this past Saturday night, Gunn was promoting people showing up at the airport to welcome the family back into New Zealand.

As I understand it, (and it's certainly not clear at this point), if you show up at the airport with a professional camera operator and want to do interviews, you need permission from the airport company first. It would appear that they didn't have this permission, and that would be the explanation for the trespass being issued. I'm not clear on what the assault was about, but details will be revealed in time, probably when the pair appear in court.

Gunn is currently claiming police brutality and has put up images of herself with her arm in a sling after seeking medical treatment at the hospital. But if you resist arrest, you likely put yourself at risk of force needing to be applied.

Tokelau is a New Zealand dependency, and the citizens have New Zealand citizenship. As such, New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has some responsibility for it. As it so happens, former PM Jacinda Adern's father Ross Adern, was in the position of Administrator for Tokelau. (It's been reported that he's the former administrator), but the MFAT website still shows him as being the current administrator.

Of course, with Gunn being a conspiracy theorist, she's put 2 and 2 together and come up with 17 and believes that Ross Adern is under the tyrannical control of his daughter Jacinda, and is directing the Tokelauans to imprison those refusing to be vaccinated.

From the Radio New Zealand article, they quote MFAT at saying that Ross Adern, as administrator, had no say in the implementation of tunoa.

“New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in July the former Administrator Ross Ardern had no say in the implementation of tunoa, and that mandatory vaccination was a decision taken by Tokelau's village leaders.”

Not that any denials from official sources will sink into the conspiracy-minded brain!

Join us online every month at

Skeptics in Cyberspace