A Bridge Too Far

My day with the people who could break the Auckland Harbour Bridge

Yesterday I spent the morning with the wrong sort of Maori.

The kind that believe in God, sing the national anthem and wave the New Zealand flag with pride. The Destiny Church Maori. The Brian Tamaki Maori. The worried-about-immigration Maori. Those Maori.

The Maori many regard as the duped and the dopey. The poor saps suckered by a slick-talker and tax fraudster. Those Maori.

As a TERF I’m used to being considered persona non grata by the caring folk. But admit you’re attending a Tamaki-inspired gathering and the odium is next level.

That’s okay. I wasn’t really interested in the man himself. I wanted to talk to the people who cared enough to turn out on a hot Saturday for a thwarted walk for a New Zealand they regard as under threat.

NZTA and NZ Police had already put the kibosh on their planned stroll across the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Despite previous approved marches by the TPM Te Tiriti hikoi and pro-Palestine folk (canned due to weather), NZTA now said the Tamaki march could cause serious structural damage.

In fact, as police superintendent Naila Hassan explained on television the night before, all marches across the harbour bridge were now banned. Presumably that includes the Auckland marathon because there’s no such thing as two-tier policing in New Zealand.

So instead they gathered with their New Zealand flags and specially printed t-shirts at Victoria Park, which was to be the setting off point for the walk, but morphed into a meeting place for the faithful. All the usual dissidents were there - Simon Anderson of Simon TV and the Silent Auditor recording the event. Media reports say 1200 people attended, my guess was more like 2000, possibly more. Later Tamaki put the number at 5000.

Lucky for me, they were a chatty bunch. I walked to the venue with a teacher and his son who’d come from the Waikato for the event. As a long-time Destiny church member, the teacher said he’d seen many lives changed for the better thanks to the church. Fair to say we didn’t have faith in common but we bonded instantly when he expressed a healthy dislike for the gender ideology he’d seen infiltrating the education system.

Next I spoke to Joey, a 72-year-old grandmother worried about her children and grandchildren, the cost of living, the starter jobs that no longer exist because they’ve been taken by migrants and the changing face of New Zealand. Mass immigration. Migrants permitted to break our laws for cultural/religious reasons. Such as? Riding motorbikes without helmets because turbans are religious headgear and permitted to carry swords and daggers in public. Imagine if anyone from Destiny Church did that. It’s not fair.

A Pakeha with a flag draped around his shoulders said he was a Kiwi but had been living in Australia for the last 20 years. He’d been on the Australia march the week before and had come to this one, not as a committed Christian, but as a former Kiwi concerned about global trends making themselves felt everywhere in the West. What trends? Mass immigration and the replacement of the host population. The result was nothing but a declining standard of living.

He wasn’t the only person from Australia. A young Maori woman on my left had flown over especially for the event and on my right was a relatively new member of the Destiny congregation, a woman from Tauranga, who told me the church had transformed her life and the effect had impressed her family.

Conversations with friendly randoms continued apace. Not everyone was Maori, but they were the majority. Observations such as migrants only employ their own. No work for their children. The heaviness felt in the row of Indian stores in a Maori town. The treachery of all the political parties who had allowed mass immigration. Winston Peters? Pfff, he flips and flops, depending on what’s in it for him.

But now, dammit, my great on-the-ground crack was interrupted by microphones and speeches on stage. First up, a South African and Samoan New Zealander chewing the fat about the New Zealand they love and what used to be expected from migrants. Integration. Assimilation. Becoming proud New Zealanders.

Then the big man himself was up. Aggrieved at the brand-new ban on bridge crossing. Pointing out that the senior sergeant who had supported the NZTA decision was a Muslim woman. “You know what happened yesterday? Islam told Christianity you can’t march across the bridge.”

He too lamented the New Zealand he used to know, the one that was the richest country in the world, the one that was one people under one faith and one flag, before we imported people who drove on fake truck licences and committed electoral fraud. Imagine if Destiny Church had done that?

“Indians have come through open borders and mass immigration. I am not against immigration but this government are piling them in, and allowing this wreckage to come in.

“It is irresponsible and unhealthy - this paradise is infested with parasites.”

All political parties were to blame and Tamaki urged the crowd to withhold their vote. Said they were piling in the migrants and courting their vote because in that way they could rig the elections. That vote will be so large it will decide our future.

Perhaps the most important thing he said that day was that New Zealand is one of the few countries allowing non-citizens (permanent residents) to vote in national elections, and it has the shortest residency requirement among them. One year. That’s all it takes and non-citizens can vote.

At some point the crowd sang the national anthem which moved the friend next to me so much, she felt weepy. Being a hard-hearted journo, I felt no such thing.

Finally the crowd lined up for the thwarted walk which ended in front of rows of police on the motorway exit and a sign that glowed orange warning arrests would be made if we went any further. More Brian big talk, thanking the police, saying he’d give them a raise if it was up to him, and of course, he’s not a violent man.

At about the same time as a phlanx of police were preventing this largely Maori contingent from marching, another march was taking place along Queen street. This one was in support of Palestine, Arab, and Muslim communities, who organisers said have faced rising hate, intimidation, harassment, and discrimination in this country. Obviously I wasn’t there but I saw footage on social media. Sod-all police, lots of ake ake ake, some Sikhs but mostly white folk and foreign flags, as well as the trans flag. In other words, the caring people’s omni-cause.

It wasn’t until the march ended and everyone made their way back to the park that I had my best conversation yet with a man called Peter Whetu, also a long-time Destiny member. Since he spelled out his name and saw me writing it down, I don’t think he’ll mind me mentioning him. We covered everything from tithing (pff, lots of churches tithe, so what?), to Trump, to Maori incarceration, to the bad optics and foolishness of Destiny lads charging library dragtime story hour. Many truth bombs were exploded.

He was a big believer in the treaty but swore it wasn’t just between Maori and the Crown but that the agreement also included the church and that’s where we’ve gone wrong. No more church. I have no idea if he’s right but thanks for the top talk Peter.

Now that it was all over Simon TV, yours truly and a mate felt the need to repair to Leo Molloy’s HQ for a drink, pizza and debrief. This seemed the perfect destination since the day before I’d been on the Platform with Leo Molloy as part of Free Speech Friday and we had discussed the march. As a fan of immigration, Molloy decried the Tamaki message as xenophobic and unpleasant. Once I might have agreed but these days I think airing concerns about mass migration is healthy and legitimate and I said so on air. At least I hope I did. You never know with these things and I refuse to go back and listen.

I also pointed out that a month ago Australia had listed Indian students as the highest risk due to the lack of integrity of applications to date and that many New Zealanders I speak to in Auckland have noticed the swelling numbers of new migrants clogging up A&E and other clinics. Over 40 per cent of Auckland’s residents are foreign born. It’s the sort of change that leaves many wondering what it means to be a New Zealander. Again, I hope I said all this.

In any event, I can report that HQ does a bloody good truffle pizza.

Afterwards, since it was too hot to walk home, we ordered a rideshare. As per, the car was electric and the driver was Indian. My first question to any rideshare driver is ‘what else do you do?” since almost no-one drives full-time. This driver was in real estate. Originally from north India, he’d been in New Zealand for 15 years.

What did he think of the country? The last driver I’d asked was so despondent about the country, he told me that as soon as he’d made his money, he was returning to India since New Zealand was no longer safe. So much for becoming a Kiwi.

This driver was equally as glum. He shook his head sadly when asked his opinion. Not so good. Before yes, now, not anymore. Crime, cost of living, poor economy. Jacinda’s fault. All the money she and Grant threw around. Some a good idea, but mostly too much and for what? Also too many migrants.

Pardon?

Too many migrants. Too many. Too many coming in.

You mean … like … Indian migrants?

Yes yes he nodded. Definitely. Cheating, lying, low quality. The people that are coming in now are not the same as the ones who came in before. These ones are bringing everything down.

He knows some who spent 10, 20 lakh with an agent for a visa and job. The company they worked for went under and now these people are struggling, begging him for help.

Before I got out, he handed me his card. Business is slow right now. I wished him all the best and observed that he, an Indian migrant, was basically saying the same things as Brian Tamaki and all the people I’d spoken to that morning.

He shrugged. Of course he said.