Claire Deeks

Claire Ann Deeks is a New Zealand anti-vaccine activist who has challenged the government's response to COVID-19. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Advance NZ party in the 2020 general election, and set up the group Voices for Freedom (VFF), which distributed pamphlets that have been criticised by experts as containing COVID-19 misinformation about vaccines, lockdown and the wearing of masks. As a food blogger, Deeks promoted the paleo diet and "healthy" lunchboxes for children, and developed a petition to stop the rating system for foods used by the NZ and Australian governments. She is a former intellectual property lawyer.

Fad diet advocacy By 2016 as a full-time food blogger, Deeks was getting a profile in the New Zealand media as a "Kiwi mum and real food advocate". She toured the country under the banner of "Mothers on a Mission (For A Kids Lunchbox Revolution)", which promoted "healthy and affordable lunchbox snacks". On a podcast with Pete Evans, Deeks later reflected that when she first changed her diet and set up a paleo diet blog for kids, she became "alive to the fact that there were so many powerful interests at play and we were basically being brainwashed every day."

In 2016 Deeks used her blog to launch a petition to the Australian and New Zealand governments to ditch the Health Star Rating System for packaged foods and beverages that both were using. Speaking with Kathryn Ryan on Radio New Zealand (RNZ), Deeks said the system was likely to lead to people not looking at the ingredients in food and over-focus on the rating, and that she was cynical because it was "putting a lot of money and effort into looking at processed food...[rather]...than getting people back to looking at real food." She called the system "overly simplistic and at worst, it is deliberately misleading and at best is an unfortunate situation."

In another item on RNZ, Deeks spoke to Jack Tame and said that the rating system was encouraging people to eat more sugar. With Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB, she claimed that the system was making it confusing for people to get accurate information about food that they need to eat healthily. However, dietitian Gaye Philpott, from Nutrition Matters, acknowledged that while people have the right to make food and healthy lifestyle choices, she believed the Health Star Rating System worked in New Zealand because it clearly showed how much fat, sugar and sodium was in food.

Political aspirations In July 2020, when Jami-Lee Ross announced that Advance NZ was going to form an alliance with the NZ Public Party, led by Billy Te Kahika, to contest the 2020 New Zealand general election, he publicly stated that the focus would be on "restoring rights and freedoms to New Zealanders...[repealing]...the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act that allows for mandatory detention, mandatory medical procedures and warrantless entry powers into people’s homes...[and developing]... a real Bill of Rights that is enshrined in a written constitution that Parliament can’t override".

Deeks stood for Advance NZ in the election as third on their party list, behind Te Kahika and Ross. When campaigning, she claimed that the New Zealand government had abused the Bill of Rights when putting the country into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, said that some of the people who had died during the pandemic in New Zealand had actually tested negative for COVID, and suggested that the complexity of the law around wearing of masks was deliberate, because the "Government was preparing for possible health and safety legal issues if somebody suffered an injury from wearing a mask". Advance NZ got 1% of the votes in the election, well short of the threshold of 5% for any of its candidates to enter Parliament without an electorate seat. Deeks continued to post on the Advance NZ website.

Voices for Freedom

Deeks, along with Libby Jonson of Truly Myrtle (knitting designer) and Alia Bland of Little Bee (crochet designer), founded Voices for Freedom in December 2020. The group claimed on their website to be "a non-political organisation focused on protecting New Zealanders' fundamental human rights with a particular focus on freedom of speech, health/medical freedom and all freedoms under attack from an overzealous and oppressive Covid-19 response". The group's Facebook page was removed for what the social media platform said was "misinformation that could cause physical harm". One of the group's co-founders said they knew it would happen, "we just didn't know quite when". In December 2021, it was reported in the New Zealand news media that CERT NZ, the government agency responsible for receiving and collating reports of mis- and disinformation related to COVID-19, identified Voices for Freedom as one of the "main proponents of false information".

In March 2023, VFF launched an online radio station called Reality Check Radio (RCR). Deeks, along with co-founders Jonson and Bland, each held a 33.33% stake in the company, which was registered as NZ Media Holdings 2023 Limited. Notable RCR hosts include former ACT Party leader Rodney Hide, former TVNZ broadcaster Peter Williams, anti-vaccine influencer Chantelle Baker, and former Radio New Zealand broadcaster Paul Brennan.

Formal complaints On 5 May 2021, it was reported that the Advertising Standards Authority had accepted four complaints about flyers that had been distributed by Voices For Freedom. Deeks said that the group had planned the flyer "and it was well-timed to coincide with the government's new vaccine programme". As reported in the press on 10 June 2021, The Advertising Standards Authority largely upheld the complaints. Its ruling acknowledged, that while the disclaimer stating: 'The information on this leaflet is educational only and does not constitute medical or legal advice' identified Voices for Freedom as an "advocacy organisation", the leaflet was in "breach of principles including social responsibility, truthful presentation, and rules governing advocacy organisations communications".Deeks said she strongly disagreed with the decision and that the group would be undeterred with its "plans for future leaflet drops".