Auckland Council has cancelled bookings pro and anti co-governance meetings at the Mount Eden War Memorial Hall. Photo: Auckland Council
Auckland Council has cancelled venue bookings for both anti and pro co-governance meetings that were due to take place at Mount Eden War Memorial Hall on Monday night.
The council's director of customer & community services, Dr Claudia Wyss, said they cancelled the two events on the grounds of public safety.
"We weren't quite clear that the health and safety plans were going to keep the public safe, we believe that both of them had improvements that needed to be made and those were the grounds on which we cancelled these events."
"Of course we had to make sure that the public could stay safe first - it's always better to be safe than sorry" - Dr Claudia Wyss
There were worries that there may be a clash between the two opposing groups attending the events, she said.
"Both event bookings were made directly back-to-back which meant that both the people who may be leaving one event and the people who may be arriving for the next could be directly facing each other and may perhaps not be of shared views."
The council also had traffic concerns as the War Memorial is at a very busy intersection, she said.
Wyss put the late cancellation of the event down to the fact that it was assessed at the highest level.
"It got escalated right to my level to make sure that we had assessed everything properly, that we had conducted a fair assessment of security, we were liaising with security experts, we were liaising with the police to make sure that we were making the right and justified decisions based on a safety standpoint."
In this instance the issue was not around the ability to have a debate or freedom of speech, but public safety, Wyss said.
"So we work quite closely with organisers to make sure that any events that are booked meet the safety requirements and in this instance that's where they fell short."
The Auckland Posie Parker rally on Saturday where the British gender activist was forced to leave without speaking after being overwhelmed by thousands of heckling counter-protesters did influence the council's decision in cancelling these two events, Wyss said.
"It did give us an indication of public sentiment and we need to make sure that we consider the risks at any point in time and how they may vary given that sentiment."
Auckland Council was very confident it had made the decision to cancel the events on the right information and on the right basis, she said.
Important to debate in 'respectful way' - Prime Minister
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said whether they were able to book a venue was not his decision since he did not manage public venue bookings around the country.
"Issues around co-governance, you see a group of people looking to exploit uncertainty and fear rather than try and throw light onto the situation."
Asked what the solution was if some venues were refusing to book speakers due to potential security concerns, Hipkins said it was important, as a country, to be able to have a debate in a respectful way.
"We've got to be able to, as a country to have a debate in a respectful way, that's certainly something I'll be endeavouring to lead by example on in this election year."