Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent on the crowds of protesters dispersing from Parliament grounds

Authorities are urging Hīkoi mō te Tiriti attendees to travel safely as their journey home begins.

It's estimated at least 42,000 people gathered at the Parliamentary precinct and in the surrounding streets to protest the contentious Treaty Principles Bill.

Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the protestors were polite and restrained at today's event.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Barry Soper, Senior Political Correspondence with US. Now, Hey Barry,
good afternoon. So the hekoi has everybody dispersed peacefully and
it's just grounds back to normal.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, I were quite shrewd really because Whitangi Park they've
all gone to now so there was another venue for
them to go to. And Parliament essentially has been cleared
of the protesters and that's a good thing. Although I've
got to say I thought the protest has given protests
here in the past. They were pretty well behaved. I

(00:30):
had to meander my way through the crowd to get
into the building, and you know, they were very polite
when I was got slapt in the face a bit
by the Maori flags and the Wellington wind but that
was about as bad as it got. Interestingly, inside the house,
the Speaker and I think it was the right thing
to do. He cleared the public galleries. He wouldn't allow

(00:53):
anybody to come in and witness what was going on
on the debating floor, and that's a good thing considering
what happened last week to that end. Here the three
Maldi MPs, they've been complained about no surprizes for guessing
who they are it's witt of course Packer and the

(01:13):
young twenty two year old who ripped up the Treaty bill.
It was interesting that MIGHTP. Clark. She gave an interview
today that I was reading and she said that she
wasn't the one that was meant to rip up the bill.
But I've been planning this protest for the past year,
which I found rather interesting. But the Standing Orders Committee
and this has been in house, but they will look

(01:35):
at the rules surrounding the behavior in Parliament. Now. The
difficulty is what can you do with people who breach
the current rule? Slap them on a wrist with a
wet bus ticket. That's about all they can do. But
they would like to be able to do more. But
it's difficult, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yes, it is, And I mean, so what is it
that they suggested Because at the moment Hannah raftsi might
Clark has been docked what twenty four hour's worth of
pay and suspended for twenty four hours? What else can
you do?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, not a hell of a lot, because you know,
when you've got a democracy, you know you've got to
allow people to speak, but not behave in the way
they did. But how do you prevent that, and that's
the difficulty. Shane Jones, he said he would like to
see a deterrent factor, and I think we'd all like
to see that, because I've never seen anything like I

(02:26):
saw last week in Parliament. But how do you deter them?
It's not that easy, No, not at all.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Okay, Now the public are going to have a say
on the bill yet?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, well now, of course the bill goes to the
Justice Select Committee and that was in fact open today,
so public submissions for the next six months will be heard. Now.
David Seymour, he said that's a great thing. Have I
listened to him in the House this afternoon.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
The Justice Select Committee is now seeking public submissions from
all New Zealanders on their views on the bill. This
is the first time in our history of mister Speaker,
that all New Zealanders have been offered an equal chance
to have a say on what our constitutional future means
under the Treaty of White Tonguey. And I'd encourage people
to get along to the Justice Committee website and have

(03:17):
their voice heard.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
So I might not have got as referendum, Heather, but
at least the public if they want to, can now
have a say, and let's hope it's a bit orderly
considering what we've seen in the past.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Marry tell me something.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Read the he called today it felt like weirdly And
it's weird to say this because thirty five thousand people
turning up at the grounds of Parliament is actually a
pretty successful thing. But it felt weirdly like a fizzer regardless,
and that I think is because thirty five thousand people
had turned up for the Dunedin protest over the hospital, right,
and if you can draw thirty five thousand people from
the bottom of the country, it kind of it makes

(03:52):
you wonder why you can't draw a bigger crowd from
across the country for an issue as contentious as this, right,
with all of this media attention. But it's also I
suppose because the hacker was the main event that happened
last Thursday.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
But what was your feeling, I mean, how's it been
received in Parliament?

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Well, you've got to remember that this was a political protest.
It was organized by the Maldi party, so you know,
to get that number along was not a bad effort.
But around Parliament it was interesting sitting in the gallery
as I did this afternoon watching question time. It was
a quiet affair because, as I said earlier, the galleries

(04:26):
were empty. Yeah, and so it was a very orderly
Parliament this afternoon. And you know, I thought that's exactly
what should have happened, that you had the separation out
the front to the parliament inside the debating Chairman. It's
a pity that you couldn't have seen that orderly conduct
last week.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Very thanks, very much, Very Soper, Senior Political Corresponding. It
feels like the wind's been kind of knocked out of it.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
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