Council cancellation of Anzac Day parades a hasty move, RSA says

Waihi RSA says cancelling civic parades on Anzac Day was a decision made in haste by the Hauraki District Council.

The council made the decision to not go ahead with street parades and Civic Commemoration Services this year.

Only council civic services and parades are cancelled. Services around the district are listed on the council website for people to attend.

Mayor Toby Adams said that when the call was made to cancel, it was because the guidelines in place were too tight. “Now, even with the easing of restrictions, we’re conscious of the importance of keeping the vulnerable in our community safe, given the current spread of Covid in the Waikato.”

He said the lead-in for traffic management and event organisation was part of the decision.

Waihi RSA president Elle Henderson said veterans, RSA members and supporters had endured two years of lockdowns and she believed people could have made their own minds up about attendance.

“Hauraki District Council rang me on February 25 then they had a meeting on the same day and rang back to say it would definitely be cancelled. It surprised me because I had given my opinion not to be rash and make the decision so early.

“People should be looking after people but also their own selves. If people aren’t happy to go out, they don’t go out and that’s what’s happened all along.”

The RSA is organising its own small parade in the carpark since there will be no street parades for servicemen and women in the district after the council decision.

Civic parades are going ahead in neighbouring Thames-coromandel district.

Elle said when the Hauraki council sought the RSA’S opinion, the Government was making decisions that were very temporary, and she requested that the council wait a month.

Some RSA members were still wary of going out, especially now that vaccine mandates had been lifted, she said.

Veteran Bill Burgess said he didn’t think the decision by the council was the right one.

“I think people can make their own minds up about whether they want to attend a service,” he said.

Mayor Adams said he appreciated this had been a difficult decision for the community: “The difference for us as a council is that our street parades are all on state highways, unlike other towns who may be able to hold their parade through their main street, so our lead-in time for getting traffic management plans in place is earlier, along with the costs associated with that. At the time the decision had to be made, we were aware there may be changes to the traffic light settings, but not what they would look like, so the primary concern was for the safety of the vulnerable in our community. Had we received earlier notification from central government on what the new restrictions would look like, our decision process would have been different.

“What we have been hard at work doing is putting together the Anzac Commemoration video which will be done as a series of episodes starting on Wednesday this week through to Sunday 24th, and then a full new video on Anzac Day itself. We’ll have them on our Facebook page and Youtube channel. We have filmed at various RSAS and have involved Paeroa College. We’ve had incredible support from all involved, particularly the returned servicemen.

“Mark Wright has done an excellent job of interviewing everyone and bringing out their stories, as well as performing his monologue from his play, which is a work in progress and tentatively titled Voices from Gallipoli which will feature in the main Anzac Day video.”

Paeroa College students met with Mark at the Paeroa RSA last week, where Mark emceed a Q&A session about Gallipoli and interviewed the returned servicemen.

This will feature as its own episode on Sunday.

The council has made $1500 donations to the Ngatea, Paeroa and Waihi RSAS’ Poppy funds.

● Wednesday 20 April to Monday 25 April: various videos broadcast including on Anzac Day Mark Wright’s 20-minute Voices behind the Uniforms, featuring footage of his play and from previous services and parades. The stories are both funny and sad.