Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki will not be allowed to walk across the Harbour Bridge on Labour weekend, according to authorities.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki will not be allowed to walk across the Harbour Bridge on Labour weekend, according to authorities.
An Auckland Harbour Bridge protest march organised by Brian Tamaki has been scuppered by officials who say the church failed to provide necessary information to green-light walking on the highway.
Tamaki claimed he postponed plans for the Labour weekend immigration protest march – but authorities say permission was actually refused.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi national manager of maintenance and operations Andrew Clark told the Herald: “The Freedoms and Rights Coalition was advised of the formal process to follow to request access.
“The group did not provide information on how their event would meet the required criteria to access the state highway corridor, including the Auckland Harbour Bridge, so their request was refused on that basis.”
Police initially told the Herald planning was under way for the protest, then later said permission had been denied.
“Police are aware that organisers of a march over Auckland Harbour Bridge on Sunday 26 October have been denied approval for pedestrian access,” they said.
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki on Queen St. Photo / Alex Burton
“Police are continuing to communicate with protest organisers.”
Labour weekend is generally a high-traffic holiday weekend and Tamaki’s original plan was that his immigration-themed protest – dubbed the “March for New Zealand” – would see supporters walk from the North Shore to Auckland’s CBD on the Sunday, he said.
Tamaki told the Herald last week he had decided to postpone the October 26 protest so the community would not be inconvenienced and had asked his team to advise the authorities.
The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti crossed the Auckland Harbour Bridge into Auckland in November 2024. Photo / NZME
“I took into consideration the timing is going to inconvenience a lot of people that are on holiday so decided to postpone the march,” Tamaki said.
“It would delay a lot of people on holiday ... and that’s not our intention. We know on a Sunday afternoon that the bridge will be full of traffic and that would hurt our cause.”
Tamaki said he wants the march to go ahead at a later date and he wants it to unite New Zealanders.
“We are losing our identity and our way of life and that’s because of mass immigration. Many ethnicities are outnumbering us in places like social housing, the workplace, everywhere,” he claimed.
“I’m not saying they are not good people but the blame should be laid at the Government’s feet,” Tamaki said.
He said he believed Kiwis were leaving their own country because it was not what it used to be.
“The fear I have for my great-grandchildren is what kind of country will they grow up in,” Tamaki said.
Joseph Los’e is an award winning journalist and joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for urban Māori organisation Whānau Waipareira.
