Anti co-governance tour books Taupō's Great Lake Centre

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Taupō’s Great Lake Centre has hosted hundreds of top acts over the years and has been booked for an upcoming “stop co-governance” roadshow.

The controversial “stop co-governance” roadshow is making its way to Taupō and has made a booking for a meeting in the town’s Great Lake Centre, however it may not go ahead due to security concerns.

The Taupō District Council has confirmed it has taken a booking from the Stop Co-Governance Group, led by former school teacher, turned preacher, Julian Batchelor, for Wednesday, April 26.

Acting council chief executive Julie Gardyne said a booking had been made, but had not been confirmed, and the council were waiting for the group to update it on “health and safety and security requirements that apply to all bookings at our venues”.

Batchelor’s roadshow has faced numerous venue cancellations in recent weeks, mainly due to security concerns and counterprotests.

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The Taupō Great Lakes Centre has taken a booking from the Stop Co-Governance Group, led by former school teacher, turned preacher, Julian Batchelor.

Auckland’s council cancelled their booking for the Mount Eden War Memorial Hall on Monday night, with both protesters and Batchelor told their bookings had been cancelled in response to safety concerns.

A Rotorua meeting was advertised to be held at the Rotorua Bowling Club on April 30, but the club withdrew from the event after “being made aware of the content of the event and the volatility of the presentation”.

Also on Monday, the managers of the Havelock North Function Centre said the group’s booking at the Centre had been cancelled due to the Havelock North Community Centre Trust ‘’being unable to provide a safe space for staff, caterers and other hirers in the building”.

And, on March 21, police in Ōrewa had to separate members of local iwi Ngāti Manuhiri and Te Herenga Waka o Ōrewa Marae from meeting attendees after they began singing in te reo Māori in an attempt to drown out Batchelor.

Batchelor claims the media and Māori activists were “working in tandem” to “bring misinformation to the public” regarding co-governance, and venue managers and owners around the country had been “groomed by the media to keep the public in the dark”.

He said he expected about 1000 people to attend the Taupō event, and he was working on an alternative venue for a Rotorua meeting.

“We have a network that’s growing fast in Taupō … and we have had a lot of registrations for the Taupō event.

”If that is closed down, we will look for another venue,” he said.

Gardyne said the council’s actions were subject to judicial review on human rights grounds and “as such we cannot discriminate on the grounds of religious or political belief”.

“Our venues are open to all members of the community and council has to be neutral about the beliefs of persons hiring those venues.

“Taupō District Council does not endorse the views of any of the public speakers who may use public facilities from time to time. The use of our public venues does not imply any association with Taupō District Council,” she said.

Gardyne said if the organisers failed to provide an explanation of the nature of the event, or provide assurance there were adequate health and safety and security measures in place, the council “may be unable to allow use of the venue”.

She said co-governance and working in partnership with local iwi was a priority for council and was “pursued openly”.

“We have a Tūrangi Co-Governance Committee made up of equal representation from council and Ngāti Tūrangitukua which oversees the implementation of the Mana Whakahono-a-Rohe agreement in the Tūrangi township.”

The council also introduced a Māori ward at the last local government election.

The Tūwahretoa Māori Trust Board declined to comment about the meeting.