Straight from city council A personal view, by Councillor Steve Morris

Next month, in association with Tauranga City Libraries, former Prime Minister Helen Clark will be speaking about her career at an event celebrating 125 years of women's suffrage in New Zealand - a great milestone and an interesting speaker.

Although I disagree with much of her politics it's great that she's coming to Tauranga to speak and be heard. I anticipate it'll be an orderly evening with no death threats and no megaphones shouting her down.

Compare the reception Helen Clark's receiving in Tauranga with that of her political contemporary, Don Brash, in Palmerston North.

Like Ms Clark, Dr Brash was going to speak about his career - however, his talk was cancelled by Massey University Vice-Chancellor Jan Thomas after threats by political leftists.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the cancellation an overreaction; aren't universities supposed to be bastions of free speech? Does the ‘heckler's veto' now rule who can and can't speak in New Zealand?

I received both my under and post-graduate degrees from Massey, and for the first time I'm embarrassed to be associated with them.

When I worked overseas I always described Massey on my CV as being ‘a leading New Zealand university'. For now, that statement doesn't ring true. Given her previous comments about free-speech, I think the Vice-Chancellor confuses ‘hate-speech' with ‘speech I hate'.

As part suffrage celebrations, Labour MP Jan Tinetti will give a public talk in the TCC Chamber; hecklers won't stop it and thank goodness we didn't let the ‘hecklers veto' win in 1893!