{"id":253615,"date":"2026-01-27T05:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/253615\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T05:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:21:07","slug":"brian-tamaki-says-destiny-will-cross-harbour-bridge-major-police-operation-planned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/253615\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Tamaki says Destiny will cross Harbour Bridge, major police operation planned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou\u2019re not going on the 31st just to march and go over the bridge, you\u2019re going as Destiny, you\u2019re carrying the future hopes of this country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand this [march] is so hot, that there are three counter protests against us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DestinyDestiny Church leader Brian Tamaki leads a march down Queen St in central Auckland. Photo \/ Alex Burton.<\/p>\n

NZTA said the group\u2019s application to use the bridge was declined because \u201cinformation provided in the Coalition\u2019s Traffic Management Plan did not meet NZTA\u2019s strict criteria\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very high threshold for acceptance of requests to access the bridge for special events,\u201d it said, adding \u201cthe bridge is not designed for use by pedestrians\u201d.<\/p>\n

The potential disruption to the whole Auckland transport network because of the timing and duration of the event was also considered, NZTA said.<\/p>\n

Tamaki previously blasted NZTA\u2019s decision in a social post<\/a>, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s obvious [the] Government and police are panicking that big numbers of Kiwis will be turning out to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Sat 31st January\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will meet at Victoria Park at 11am … The decision will be made then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrianBrian Tamaki told church members the future of New Zealand “relies on Destiny”. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

However, Tamaki\u2019s Sunday message confirmed the group\u2019s intention to walk the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t turn up like you are today,\u201d he told parishioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to call friends and tell them of the big moment, even if you don\u2019t agree with us, you\u2019ve got to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you like bridge-walking? Come. Do you like big crowds? Do you want to be noisy? Be in the heat of the moment? Get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protest has been heavily advertised on Facebook by the church\u2019s latest offshoot, anti-immigration group True Patriots of NZ, with posts saying \u201cSee you on the bridge\u201d.<\/p>\n

Members of the controversial group attended a Sikh parade in South Auckland last month<\/a> holding banners that read: \u201cThis is NZ, not India\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA group linked to Brian Tamaki disrupted a march by Sikhs in South Auckland. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Police warned anyone considering crossing the bridge on Saturday should \u201ccarefully consider their actions\u201d, as they would be breaking the law and \u201csubject to enforcement action\u201d.<\/p>\n

Waitemat\u0101 district commander Superintendent Naila Hassan said a significant police operation had been planned and was well advanced.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganisers know very well that police will not support or facilitate any march across the bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny pedestrian access to the bridge poses a serious danger to the pedestrians themselves as well as law abiding motorists using the motorway network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassan added that police had offered to work with protest organisers to find another location so they could \u201ccarry out their protest peacefully and lawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said they would advise the public of any disruptions on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019re not going on the 31st just to march and go over the bridge, you\u2019re going as Destiny,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2840,3017,3952,29893,5159,1565,12897,10039,17353,59796,15159,12896,146870,209,20589,305,661,111,43,139,69,17286,9010,26584,26346,675,25394,312,31421,1533,102],"class_list":["post-253615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-across","tag-ahead","tag-aucklands","tag-authorities","tag-brian","tag-bridge","tag-church","tag-controversial","tag-cross","tag-defying","tag-denied","tag-destiny","tag-forge","tag-group","tag-harbour","tag-have","tag-major","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operation","tag-pastor","tag-permission","tag-planned","tag-police","tag-protest","tag-says","tag-tamaki","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}