Face-off at controversial meeting
The majority of protesters against an anti-co-governance meeting were kept hundreds of metres away from the venue, while a few who made it in interrupted the proceedings.
The controversial ‘Stop CoGovernance’ speaking tour by school teacher-turned-evangelist Julian Batchelor met at Paraparaumu’s Lindale Village on Monday night, days after a heated exchange broke out before an event in Levin with the organisers accused of excluding Māori.
On Monday, about 25 protesters were stopped at a gate 350 metres from the venue, manned by about 20 police officers and the venue’s owner Greg Rudings, who told The Post he offered to have the event on the site. Only cars and people that Rudings checked and deemed ‘‘harmless’’ could pass through. There was also at least one visible tyre spike behind the gate.
The protesters sang waiata, held signs and handed leaflets to the attendees. But inside the venue, Batchelor was continuously interrupted.
Another 15 protesters who made it inside disrupted the meeting by letting their phones ring at full volume, heckled at Batchelor when he was speaking, and sang English verses of the national anthem. They were escorted away by police.
A meeting attendee was also escorted out by officers after he smashed a protester’s phone to the floor and tried to physically stop another from disrupting the meeting.
Rudings told The Post he approached Batchelor to host the tour because he was ‘‘appalled at the behaviour’’ of some protesters, but he welcomed them to protest outside private property.
‘‘I offered my premises on the basis that there was no way I was going to let the protesters shut him down on my site,’’ he said. ‘‘We were quite happy that [the protesters] behaved themselves on the boundary.’’
Batchelor has claimed he opposes ‘‘race-based legislation’’, and criticised Māori MPs, rights for Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and iwi organisations.
Alex Johnston, from Christian Action Aotearoa who organised some of the protesters, said keeping them out was ‘‘picking and choosing cases of free speech’’, and Batchelor was promoting racism and disinformation about te ao Māori.
‘‘Christians were integral in the forming of Te Tiriti o Waitangi,’’ he said. ‘‘We see it as a sacred covenant.’’