New venue kept secret as anti co-governance roadshow hits Bay of Plenty

Friday, 14 April 2023

Stop Co-Governance roadshow organiser Julian Batchelor at the Kerikeri event.

A ‘Stop Co-Governance’ roadshow will go ahead at two venues in the Bay of Plenty this month with one venue secret and protests expected.

Julian Batchelor’s Anti Co-Governance roadshow is being held in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui on April 22 and 23.

“No doubt there will be protests,” Batchelor said. “We are only letting people in who we know who they are and police will stop anyone coming in that we don’t want, or make anyone exit the building from inside. Attendees have to pre-register. We have people on the ground who know people, so they will know if anyone tries to register under another name.“

Māori leader, Buddy Mikaere, said there were likely to be peaceful protests at the meetings.

”He says he is entitled to the principle of free speech, and so are we. The views he expresses have consequences, and iwi and many others are not happy he is coming, but equally we have the right to attend to respond to what he is saying.”

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Batchelor opposes co-governance and criticises Māori MPs, Treaty of Waitangi rights for Māori and iwi organisations.

Next week’s meeting in Mount Maunganui was assessed by committee members of Mount Community Hall, who decided it could still go ahead, confirmed a spokesperson.

The Tauranga meeting was originally planned in a historic hall overseen by Tauranga City Council. Alastair McNeil, general manager corporate services said the council had received emails from people voicing their disappointment and concerns about safety.

“The beliefs expressed by the Stop Co-governance campaign do not align with the community outcomes we are seeking to achieve and suspect the general anti co-governance rhetoric is offensive to many in our community.”

Event organiser Batchelor said they had decided not to use the council venue after all as council “was trying to impose ridiculous health and safety rules”.

At a Stop Co-Governance event in Orewa police separated protesters from those at the event

The new Tauranga venue is in a private building, he said, which he was not going to reveal.

“People can meet at the Historic Village and then will be told where to go. This is to protect the owner of the new venue.”

His roadshow has already hosted several anti-co-governance meetings around the country which sparked protests, with police in Ōrewa needed to separate counter-protesters from attendees.

Some of the venues booked throughout Aotearoa for the five-month tour have been cancelled, including in Rotorua and Mount Eden.

A meeting planned for Hamilton in April was cancelled by the Waikato Indian Association, a spokesperson for the venue said.

A petition against the tour, started by Kaipara councillor Ihapera Paniora has more than 6000 signatures, alleging that Batchelor’s tour is inciting racial disharmony as defined by sections 61 and 131 of the Human Rights Act 1993.

Advocacy organisation, Aotearoa Liberation Group, run by Pere and Samah Huriwai-Seger, has encouraged peaceful protests at previous meetings, saying the tour is a “thinly veiled vehicle to spread racist propaganda”.

The group considered the forced cancellations and venue changes as “a win”, said Samah Huriwai-Seger,

”It shows that people in Aotearoa are not willing to entertain this kind of negative discourse.”

The group was not organising any Bay of Plenty protests but had pamphlets and other resources that locals could access.