Christchurch mayor ushered away as youths demand action
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger gave climate protesters about 14 minutes of his time following a three-hour stand-off which had a heavy police presence.
Over 60 School Strike For Climate protesters filled the first floor entrance of the central city council building around 2pm yesterday, refusing to leave until Mauger came and spoke to them.
It followed the 1pm climate protest - part of a nationwide day of action – where hundreds of protesters, mainly high-schoolers and rangatahi, marched from the Bridge of Remembrance, through the city, then to the council building on Worcester St.
Organiser Aurora Garner-Randolph told The Press Mauger had been invited to the march several weeks prior, so when he didn’t turn up they decided to bring it to him.
However, council staff said Mauger wasn’t in the building and was in a meeting all afternoon. A spokesperson said he was not told the protesters would be going to the council building, or that they wanted to speak to him directly.
The city councillors who did attend the march included Sara Templeton, Tyla Harrison-Hunt, Greg Byrnes (from Environment Canterbury), Celeste Donovan, and Andrei Moore, who stayed until the very end.
Mauger had to be summoned by council chief executive Mary Richardson, who failed to convince the protesters to leave so that council staff could go home to their families.
Despite the increasing stress levels of the adults around them – including 18 police officers at its peak, some with safety glasses on-hand – the protesters remained in a buoyant mood, undeterred by the threat of trespass by police should they stay past 5pm.
For three hours they barn-danced, sang, and filled out submissions to the council’s Long Term Plan to ask for more climate action.
They only left the building once Mauger got on the phone and promised he was on his way, later arriving outside the main entrance through a police-protected side door at about 5.30pm, flanked by staff and a security guard.
He told protesters he was pleased with their enthusiasm. He remained upbeat, even when he was asked to resign over the recent report which found the city council will almost certainly fail its emissions reduction targets by 2030.
The protesters didn’t think there was enough climate action in the Long Term Plan – to which Mauger referenced the proposed climate change levy – and were unsatisfied with Mauger’s answers to questions about protecting the environment. After about 14 minutes – and just after Mauger reassured protesters he was there to listen – he was ushered towards a secure exit by staff and loudly booed. Friday’s protest took place in 20 centres across the country and tackled a range of issues, including Treaty rights, the war in Gaza, climate change and animal rights. After arriving at the civic building, Garner-Randolph called the council's longterm plan a “complete failure“that encouraged car usage and single-story sprawling subdivisions, and would transform Ōtautahi into a second Auckland.
Mauger also met the protesters last year, but received a drubbing for suggesting he’d changed his position on climate change “after the events that have happened up north”, referring to the devastation wreaked by Cyclone Gabrielle.
He later insisted he had in fact believed in climate change for “yonks”.
ACT leader David Seymour, who is associate education minister, said yesterday students should be in school and learning instead of protesting during school hours.
“I appreciate that some students have passionate views and are anxious about their futures. But I want to make it clear that if they want to effect real change in the world, they need to turn up to school and get a good education now,” he said.
Seymour said his expectation was that schools would treat students protesting as explained, but unjustified, absences.