Members of Brian Tamaki’s Destiny Church broke through police barricades and disrupted the rainbow parade in central Auckland on Saturday.

A group wearing Man Up T-shirts blocked Ponsonby Rd, holding up the parade as they performed a haka.

The group then stood in front of police officers who were walking ahead of the parade.

Members of the public attending the parade cheered to drown out the disruption.

The protesters then danced and swaggered away, smiling and waving at an unimpressed crowd.

A police spokesman said several individuals reportedly forced their way through barriers on Ponsonby Rd near Williamson Ave.

“Police responded and moved the individuals off the road,” he said.

Auckland’s Mayor Wayne Brown criticised the action of protesters after an earlier violent disruption at a children’s event in the city featuring a drag king.

“The actions of Destiny Church today are totally unacceptable. While I respect freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest, to enter a council library facility that is there for all our communities to use and intimidate council staff, volunteers and community members going about their business, is completely out of line.

“There is absolutely no place for thuggery,” he said.

He said Auckland was home to 1.7 million people from all walks of life, “and I value the diversity of the communities that make up our great city”.

Brown said: “The kind of behaviour that was on display today is disgraceful and unacceptable.”

Tamaki said of the Rainbow Parade disruption on social media: “Our radical young people have had enough! Our Man Up men have had enough! Destiny Church has had enough!

“The debauchery in the Rainbow Parade has gone on for too long! Auckland has long been overrun with this woke, rainbow agenda.

“And no surprise, the boys in blue were there again ... protecting their beloved rainbows.”

Violence erupted at a library drag event earlier in the day when members of Destiny Church groups stormed a community centre to protest a children’s show.

It drew the ire of Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick and Auckland Council, who both condemned the acts as “sad” and “disappointing”, and forced the cancellation of a second show at another community centre.

The melee, involving the church’s Man Up and Legacy groups and youngsters, happened at Te Atatū Community Centre and saw protesters punching, pushing and shoving their way inside.

Event organiser Auckland Pride billed the event as a “musical, magical adventure exploring the science of the skies” and was open to all ages.

About 30 toddlers, young children and adults had to be barricaded inside, RNZ reported.

Swarbrick, who has spoken with event organisers, said those targeted were “incredibly shaken up, and I think that’s the intention of this intimidation and violence”.

The church groups, protesting against a show featuring a drag king with a focus on science, were denied entry to the ticketed event before bowling past staff trying to stop them.

Tamaki posted on social media: “Proud of my people who are out in the community today, making a stand against the woke agenda plaguing our city.

Tamaki later told the Herald that Man Up was forced to step up and take peaceful action with the Government refusing to “address the excessive spending on borderline pornography and perversion targeting our innocent Kiwi kids”.

The council’s community director Rachel Kelleher told the Herald: “The council is extremely disappointed in the non-peaceful actions of protesters [at the] rainbow-friendly educational event."

- NZ Herald

Post riots back-to-school disruptions in New Caledonia

New Caledonia's post-May 2024 riots' economic and social impact is taking its toll on over 62,000 children - about half in primary schools and the other half in secondary - going back to school this week.

At least a dozen schools (primary and secondary), particularly in the Greater Nouméa area, were targeted by arsonists as part of the civil unrest last year and cannot be reopened for the time being.

Students had to be relocated to other remaining functional establishments.

Last year, the French government pledged it would pay to rebuild all destroyed schools.

For all of New Caledonia's provinces (South, North, and Loyalty islands), the school transport's subsidised system is also severely affected.

In some cases, including in the outer islands, parents have had to organise alternative solutions themselves.

Inter-island transport was also a major issue in New Caledonia over the past weeks, as domestic airline Air Calédonie and inter-island maritime ferry Betico had to suspend their respective services for almost one week due to persistent low pressure systems, especially over the French territory's Loyalty Islands province (North-east of the main island of Grande Terre) and the Isle of Pines, off Nouméa.

In many cases as well, due to provincial budget cuts, services such as financial assistance for school meals, back-to-school allowance, and transport allowance, have been affecting at least 1000 students.

In the Southern province, New Caledonia's wealthiest province, the stringent cuts are about thirty percent of the whole budget compared to last year.

Officials said this was due to the huge losses and damages following last year's riots.

The economic repercussions of the May 2024 riots also meant that because several hundred businesses were destroyed (by arson) and looted, an estimated over 10,000 people lost their jobs and, therefore, their income.

They now find it more difficult than ever to pay for the family's back-to-school expenses.

Since last year, prices have also steadily gone up, according to local statistics institute ISEE (+0.7 percent consumer price increase just for January 2025).