Stop Co-Governance Tour relocates Tauranga meeting to secret venue, refuses to meet council security rules

“Impossible” health and safety requirements and “bullies” are touted as the reasons behind the Tauranga leg of a controversial anti-co-governance tour’s move to a secret location.

The 2023 NZ Stop Co-Governance Tour previously secured Tauranga’s Historic Village Hall and Mount Maunganui Community Hall for events on April 22 and 23, respectively.

The booking prompted complaints to Tauranga City Council, which oversees the Village Hall, as the Stop Co-Governance Tour had previously attracted protests and controversy for likening co-governance to apartheid.

An online petition to New Zealand Attorney-General David Parker called for the tour to be canned, claiming it breached the New Zealand Bill of Rights and Humans Rights Act and was inciting racial disharmony.

At the tour’s Ōrewa meeting last month, police separated counter-protesters and attendees. Several venues listed on its tour have since either been cancelled, refused a booking or haven’t received a booking.

Tauranga City Council general manager of corporate services Alastair McNeil said at the time that despite what he considered to be the “offensive” beliefs expressed in the Stop Co-Governance campaign, the council would not pull the Village Hall booking. Councils could not make venue-hiring decisions based solely on value judgements about what kinds of ideas or opinions were deserving of a forum. But the council would keep a close eye on things and it was open to changing its position if there was evidence of a deviation away from free speech, he said.

Tour organisers were also instructed to provide, at its own cost, a council-approved security service “to ensure the safety of our village community”, McNeil said.

This week, the tour’s online list of events changed the local venues to TBC - to be confirmed.

Tour organiser Julian Batchelor told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend the event was withdrawn from the Village Hall location because he was “saving” potential meeting attendees from harassment from “activists”.

He also did not agree with the need for security.

“The council is putting to us impossible health and safety demands, like wanting six security guards and at least $1200 plus security fencing, plus barriers and all sorts of stuff. They were completely overdoing it, and we figured this is silly because they are private events, not public events. It’s pretty much like having a party at your home, you decide who is in and who doesn’t come in,” Batchelor said.

“And if you have trouble with people ... you can call the police to have them removed and they can be trespassed.”

Roadshow organiser Julian Batchelor at the Kerikeri meeting. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Batchelor said the tour had already secured another venue but “we are not going to tell anyone where that is”.

“If you leak it out, then the person who owns that hall - a private owner - they get hammered by activists bullying them, intimidating them and harassing them by phone and other ways. So we are going to save them from all that.”

The Village Hall in Tauranga Historic Village. Photo / Alex Cairns

Batchelor said tour organisers would direct people arriving at the Historic Village Hall next Saturday to the new location about 10 minutes away.

He said, in his view, free speech had become something that had to be competed for and he had to “navigate bullies, and thugs, and protesters”.

Batchelor said previous meetings had been wrongly portrayed as inflammatory, volatile “and not where you want to be if you want to be in a safe place”.

At the Ōrewa meeting, a large police presence separated protesters from attendees.

In coverage at the time, Mikaela Matenga (Tūhourangi, Tūwharetoa, Rongowhakaata, Te Arawa) who filmed video at the event, described the attendees’ behaviour as “volatile” and said she could “sense the fear” in the crowd.

Matenga said many people in the crowd objected to being filmed and claimed she was pushed during the heated confrontation and told she “needed Jesus”.

Video recorded by Matenga showed participants standing to shout “no” to co-governance after an invitation from Batchelor. As she filmed the moment and approached attendees, some attempted to block the camera while another came closer to shout her response.

At another point, protesters performed a rendition of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi which was met by the national anthem from attendees.

Hibiscus and Bay Local Board member Jake Law said at the time, in his opinion, Batchelor’s presentation featured misinformation and discriminatory remarks against Māori.

This week, Tauranga City Council general manager of corporate services Sam Fellows said event organisers cancelled their booking at the Village Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

“As part of our usual process, event organisers holding events in/on council venues and public spaces are responsible for the health and safety of event participants and the wider community and may be required to submit a health and safety plan before an event occurs.

“This plan must then be approved by a council health and safety representative before the event can proceed. Our health and safety expectations are clearly outlined in The Historic Village Conference and Events Guide.”

Fellows said for many events, groups hiring venues were needed to provide security services.

“We have been monitoring previous Stop Co-governance events around Aotearoa, and have worked with the organisers to get a quote from a security supplier to provide an appropriate level of security for this type of event, based on previous events.

“To date, we have received approximately seven complaints about the event.”

A woman who spoke for the Mount Maunganui Community Hall said no one wanted to speak to media about the matter.