Update: 9:00am – A police spokesperson confirmed a complaint had been made on Friday, the same day Houlbrooke posted a screenshot of the alleged abuse on her public Facebook page.
The message came after her public comments about parents waiting until they could afford it to have families. Houlbrooke, named as ACT leader David Seymour’s deputy only a week ago, was criticising a new Labour policy to give parents a $60 “baby bonus” for low and middle income families.
In a social media post the Rodney local board chair described the package as a “bribe”.
Asked later to clarify her comments she said it created a dependency on the Government, a view shared by Seymour.
On her public Facebook page on Friday Houlbrooke posted a screenshot of the alleged message, which was too explicit to print. The sender, who couldn’t be identified, said “maybe you just need the f—- bashing or a bullet”.
“Fortunately the number of encouraging personal messages sent to me over the past couple of days, have outnumbered this message I received this afternoon, by dozens to one,” Houlbrooke wrote.
“What is disturbing is that this person’s profile picture has them photographed with two young children. I hope those children do not hear this kind of threatening language at home.”
The post received a mixture of comments, the majority disappointed at the abuse.
Houlbrooke declined to confirm whether the complaint had been laid by her, citing ACT health and safety policies. She said she’d had no contact with police and that the message in question was the only negative response directed at her.
“I’m not feeling particularly threatened. I feel pretty safe. I’m pretty unphased by it. I’m not a snowflake princess,” she said.
Houlbrooke said she welcomed debate and that people were free to give her their opinions face to face, but said the message had attacked her character rather than discussing the issue.
“I don’t really have time for people to attack my character.
“I’m not a snowflake, if people want to discuss the issues with me, they know where to find me. That (message) is just nasty.”
She was “pleased” her comments had created some debate but believed people had become angry after reading “recklessly misleading media clickbait” without researching ACT policy.
“The (alleged abusive message) was likely the result of someone reading the headline and not bothering to read ACT’s policies.”
However, “explaining is losing,” she said.
“The reason I posted it was not to look for sympathy because I’m not at all concerned by it. I pointed out that what really upset me was that in their profile picture they have two young children with them and I thought, are these children hearing language like that in their family? That’s what distressed me the most.”
Seymour said the party’s board was considering reviewing its security procedures, but trusted that Houlbrooke would handle the situation how she felt fit.
“She’s received some terrible messages,” he said.
“If nothing else, it just shows that women politicians in particular can face a pretty difficult time for saying something they believe in. They face a far heavier toll than perhaps a man would. I’ve said similar things for many years and I don’t think anyone has threatened to shoot me.”
Police confirmed yesterday that a complaint had been received on Friday, and that police were “making enquiries”.
Under the Harmful Digital Communications Act, passed in 2015, it is an offence to harass, be threatening, menacing, grossly offensive, indecent or obscene online. Under the Act harm is defined as ‘serious emotional distress’.
The bill passed despite opposition by Seymour, who said at the time that existing laws could be used to prosecute cyber bullies.
The maximum sentence is two years imprisonment or a $50,000 fine for individuals.
