Maurice Williamson: Auckland Councillor discusses police intervention on Harbour Bridge closure for pro-Palestine protest

Frustration over claims police overruled the Transport Agency by allowing tomorrow's pro-Palestine march to take place on the Auckland Harbour Bridge. 

Tens of thousands of protestors are expected to cross the bridge in the morning, disrupting travel.

Auckland Councillor Maurice Williamson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the agency told him they said no to the protest, but Police intervened.

He says Police told them the bridge had to close, to maintain civil obedience.

Williamson says protestors should have chosen to march elsewhere. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now the Auckland Harbor Bridge situation. It's going to be
closed tomorrow in Auckland, obviously tomorrow morning for a march
and support of Palestine. NZTA and the police are shutting
down the southbound lanes of the bridge so that protesters
can safely cross from the north shore onto the city
side and then gather at Victoria Park. Morris Williamson is
an Auckland City councilor for Howick Warden is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey Morris, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
It'smart idea or not.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
No. Look, my concern is why does it have to
close one of the major transport arterial routes in Auckland.
And when you've some of the arguments been while there's
not much traffic on a Saturday, that's so wrong in Auckland.
You can find parts of Auckland where there are more
cars on a Saturday than there are during the weekdays.
I'm not against them having a protest. I was a

(00:44):
protester against the Vietnam War. I think it's good that
you protest, but there are plenty of locations you can
hold it to get your point away, to show the
volumes of people, to have your placards up, but to
not cause inconvenience to a huge number of people, and
there are going to be a massive number of both
motorists and AUGN Transport put out a big notification about
the disruption to the public transport network and just for

(01:08):
why it doesn't need to be on the bridge. It
can be well, Victoria Park is a good one, but
there's plenty of others and I was very disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, the fact that it's the fact that it's on
the bridge and will cause maximum disruption is the reason
that they're doing it right to get maximum publicity, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, that's not what should be the case. They've got
a very big argument about the case they're protesting for.
Make their case for it. It'll get the news no
matter what. But the idea that you cause disruption to
a huge cohort of Auckland is wanting to move about
the city on their day and do business. I think
it'll actually cost them support. There'll be people who would

(01:46):
have been in support of their cause, whatever that may be.
I'm not taking a position on the cause. I'm just
saying don't do it that does massive disruption. So I actually,
first of all, asked, at is this you guys, and
they said no, we don't do anything the State Highways,
which I knew. So went talking to New Zealand Transport
Agency and said did you make this decision? And I

(02:06):
was told we said no. We said no, you can't
close the bridge. The bridge is for traffic and has
to be kept like that. And then we got an
intervention from the police who said, in order for maintaining
civil obedience and so on, we are giving you a
direction that you do have to close the bridge.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
So the police have overridden NZTA here.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yes, and I made it very clear. I checked that
twice and NCTA's response to me was no, we said
no to the closing of the bridge, and it was
the police who told us we needed to close it.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Do you think the police have made the wrong decision?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Well, yes I do. And again, not to do with
the cause, because there'll be some people that say, oh,
because you're not supporting our cause. It would be any
protest if it was the teachers or was whatever, or
go back to the nineteen seventies in my Vietnam protest.
I am okay with protesting, and I'm okay with making
a big stre but these people who glue themselves to
main thoroughfare of roads and stock everybody going but their business.

(03:05):
I object to that, and I most certainly object to
closing down the Harbor Bridge, just so that you can
get your view about a particular issue and inconvenience a
huge number of other people.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Morris listen, Thanks very much for your view. Appreciated. That's
Morris Williamson, Auckland City Counselor.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
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