I spent an inordinate amount of time on Tuesday (June 27) trying to work out if I was going to go to the Stop Co-Governance meeting at the Lowburn Hall that evening. 

As I saw it, I had three options. Number one - I could stay at home in front of the fire in my fat-pants. Believe me, that was very tempting.

Number two - I could join the protesters that I knew were planning on being outside. I gave this serious thought but decided against this for a number of reasons, the main one being that I eventually settled on option three which was to be inside the hall, and I couldn’t be both inside and outside at the same time.

I chose to attend the meeting because I wanted to see for myself what was going on, what was being said and I wanted, if the chance was available, to offer some other perspectives on co-governance than what might be on offer.

I arrived about 20 minutes before the meeting started and spoke briefly with the group standing outside holding signs and occasionally breaking into waiata. I then went in to be met by a security guard who explained in as friendly a manner as it is to say such things that anyone who spoke before question time would be trespassed from the hall and made to leave.

This was emphasised at the start of the meeting by presenter Julian Batchelor, who said “activists” like the people outside had disrupted meetings in other places and speaking out within the meeting would not be tolerated. He explained how he would speak for about an hour and a half and then there would be a cup of tea, then he would talk a bit more then there would be a chance to comment or ask questions. I calculated with a sinking feeling that this would take us through to about half past nine.

I didn’t last anywhere near as long as that. After about 20 minutes of being told things such as that “we” (whoever “we” may be) were at war with a group of 1,000 “Elite Māori”, and references to New Zealanders being so concerned that they were buying guns, even though Julian urged them not to respond with violence, I got up and left.  

In the space of that 20 minutes, what I heard actually physically made me sick. The only good thing I could see was that there were so few Central Otago folk who had come out to hear the message of hatred. 

I am sure some of them were there out of genuine interest in the subject rather than to have their personal views reinforced and if there was one thing I agreed with Batchelor about that I heard while I was there, it was that there needs to be a much better job done of explaining what co-goverance is by national leaders. His take was that this was because the whole deal was part of a big secret; mine is that it is a complex topic which is hard to capture in a sound-bite.

Had I held out to question time and had I been given the chance to speak, I would have referred those who were there to listen to the wise words of Chris Findlayson KC, Minister of Treaty Negotiations under the John Key government.  

He says this of co-governance: “I will continue to talk about co-governance as something to be embraced, not feared”. That quote comes from an article in on-line magazine E-tangata.  

The full article can be found at Chris Finlayson: Co-governance should be embraced — not feared - E-Tangata. If you want to learn more from someone who some might find surprising, given his background, to be an advocate for co-governance, please take the time to read it.

If Julian Batchelor does come back to Central Otago, and I hope he doesn’t, I will be staying home in my fat-pants.