Strong Tauranga crowd rally in TPP protest

About 200 people marched Devonport Rd in Tauranga in protest against TPPA. Photo/Andrew Warner

An impressive crowd marched the main street of Tauranga's CBD in protest of the Trans-Pacific Partnership this morning.

About 200 people rallied in the city's Red Square armed with protest signs and Labour and New Zealand flags before they marched onto Devonport Rd.

The crowd made their way to National MP Simon Bridges' office on 3rd Ave shouting, "TPPA - no way".

Children and parents were among the crowd who cheered and clapped when speakers took to the microphone to share their opinion.

Event organiser Martin Stewart was "extremely well impressed" with the amount of people who joined the Tauranga rally.

"I was very surprised with initially how many people showed up and also who showed up." Mr Stewart said.

"It's been great to see the response from the public."

Students from Tauranga Boys' College and Tauranga Girls' College also spoke at the protest.

Rotorua's Labour spokesman Tamati Coffey also went along to the Tauranga protest.

Mr Coffey posted a video on social media saying: "The message is really simple. Anything that takes away our rights as a New Zealand country, as a New Zealand people to make our own decisions for our own people, anything that denigrates that, that puts that at risk - we're not in favour of."

The event was one of 21 TPP protests which happened around the country today.

An estimated 5000 people joined the rally at Aotea Square in Auckland before marching to the US Consulate building.