"Fire And Fury" Unearths What’s Fuelling Mistrust And Anarchy In Aotearoa

Today Stuff Circuit releases a special project that explores who’s driving a violent, misinformed New Zealand - and why.

Fire and Fury began with a day of violence but ended up somewhere much more frightening.

The Stuff Circuit team was filming at Wellington’s parliament ground protests on 2 March 2022, when everything imploded, eventually ending the three-week-long occupation.

Stuff Circuit journalist Paula Penfold says the occupation was positioned as a harmless protest about mandates, but it wasn’t.

“There were undoubtedly people there because they wanted the mandates ended. What we were interested in was not so much the protest itself but the much bigger agenda of those who were driving it.”

In the aftermath, Fire and Fury explores what happened, using Stuff Circuit’s previously unseen footage, as well as years worth of the protagonists’ own material. It reveals the backgrounds of a seemingly disparate group of key figures behind the various “freedom” movements, uncovering how they’re strategically woven together and the way they operate to promote and amplify each other through ‘alternative’ platforms. Stuff editors gave Circuit dispensation to run the material uncensored and unfiltered.

“It’s violent, vulgar, and disturbing,” Penfold says. “Death threats are commonplace. So how did it come to this? And more worryingly, what comes next?”

She says the groups have isolated their followers by convincing them the mainstream media is part of a propaganda machine. “It’s deeply ironic, given the vast quantities of false information they pump out, every day.”

“And what’s really concerning is that the level of division they’re driving is not just in fringe groups anymore. We’ve reached a tipping point where they’re increasingly pulling in the mainstream - your auntie, your neighbour, your friend…”

Anyone who cares about our democracy will want to know about the forces at work to disrupt it - and how to spot their tactics.

Fire and Fury was produced with funding from NZ On Air. Watch the documentary and explore interactive content at www.stuff.co.nz/fire-and-fury. Viewer discretion is advised.

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