The director of an anti-extremism centre, appointed by Jacinda Ardern, has called the new Government a ‘death cult’ that ‘hates children’.

Dr Joanna Kidman made the comments in response to David Seymour looking for savings in the school lunch programme, and Karen Chhour seeking to rehabilitate young serious offenders with military-style academies.

Dr Kidman was appointed by Jacinda Ardern when she established the Centre ‘to fund independent New Zealand-specific research on the causes of, and measures to prevent, violent extremism and terrorism’.

"The irony of an anti-extremism campaigner using such extreme rhetoric should be obvious," says ACT Public Service spokesman Todd Stephenson. "The call is coming from inside the building!

"While ACT supports her right to spew deranged garbage as a private citizen, she shouldn’t be doing it on the taxpayer dollar, and certainly not with the borrowed credibility of the Prime Minister’s department.

"Dr Kidman’s salary is paid by taxpayers via the Prime Minister’s department, which means Christopher Luxon has just been delivered some potential savings on a silver platter. The board of the Centre must move immediately to sack the extremist in their midst."

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