“Four hours of scaremongering rhetoric and dubious historical revision” is how one person at the Stop Co-governance tour held in Ōamaru on Wednesday night (July 5), described it.

About 140 people attended the meeting, held at the Ōamaru Club, while a small group of people protested peacefully outside, in the presence of four police officers.

The roadshow is spearheaded by evangelist Julian Batchelor and has garnered controversy in most places it stops at around the country, particularly for refusing entry to Māori.

In a detailed account of his experience at the Ōamaru event, Daniel Hunt said Batchelor repeatedly referred to “a war with Māori elites who are taking over New Zealand”, compared New Zealand to North Korea, and warned it would become the Zimbabwe of the South Pacific.

Another attendee said she could only stay for 20 minutes before she was “so revolted” by what was being said she had to leave and, for a time, joined the protestors outside.

Daniel said Batchelor knows how to prey upon people’s fear of change “with a steaming helping of scaremongering, blatant bigotry, outright falsehoods, over-simplification of issues, and careful omission of context and debate”.

One protester, Vic Reille, said she was saddened by the amount of people who turned out to listen to Batchelor speak, but that it was “heart-warming” to join like-minded individuals outside, most of whom she didn’t know.

The majority of people attending the meeting seemed to be older, she said. 

“When the meeting began we raised our signs with pride. We kept things very peaceful and respectful.”

She spoke to the woman who had walked out of the meeting.

“We found out that she was horrified as to the tone of the meeting and walked out feeling absolutely sick to her stomach that in this day and age, racial meetings are happening.

“We are all believers in freedom of speech, but this was pure hate speech,” Vic said.

After about two hours, a number of attendees left during an intermission. 

“Some came and spoke with us and applauded our efforts of protesting in the cold, but made the statement that they disagreed with our cause and what was written on our signs.”

One thing which stuck in Vic’s mind was when Daniel, who had been taking notes throughout, spoke to them afterwards and said Batchelor believed teaching te reo Māori in kindergarten and primary school was a form of “brainwashing and grooming”.

“So when the uprising happens, they conform, ” she said. 

“Throughout the night we received a number of toots from passing cars and also bystanders approaching us, encouraging us and praising us for our efforts.”

Daniel said he attended the meeting for two reasons.

"Co-governance is a critically important issue. I wanted to hear for myself what Batchelor had to say, and whether it was a case of overly woke cancel culture shutting down a reasonable voice, or if he genuinely deserved the protests," he said.

He also wanted to see what kind of crowd he would attract in Ōamaru, and how many residents would bother to protest.

"Sort of... taking the temperature of the town's political climate and seeing how polarised it may have become in an increasingly divisive political age."

Another person at the meeting offered a different interpretation of Batchelor's talk, and said it was “excellent” and “well informed”.

“I learnt a lot. There was no racism,” she said.

“It is a pity people make judgements without hearing and assessing for themselves. I think the media have been very unfair to Julian Batchelor. For those who didn't hear the Treaty (of Waitangi) explanation, you missed out big time,” she said.

The meeting finished just after 10pm.