A district council has been blamed for preventing free speech after cancelling a Stop Co-Governance campaign event set to be held in one of its public buildings.

Free Speech Union has submitted a complaint to the Human Rights Review Tribunal on behalf of Julian Batchelor, a New Zealand activist who has been campaigning on anti-Co-Governance beliefs since February.  

According to the union, Batchelor had arranged to host a public meeting for his campaign in a public venue operated by Taupō District Council on April 26 but saw his event cancelled by the council's chief executive, Julie Gardyne. 

The union said the planned event ended with local police, the council, private security and activists "working in tandem, not to call out and counter [the] speech they disliked, but to suppress and shut down ideas they disapprove of".

Union chief executive, Jonathan Ayling said while private venues should have the right to refuse any event it doesn't wish to host, public venues have a duty to allow locals to meet regardless of what will be discussed. 

"It is absolutely against the idea of free speech for local politicians...to decide whether an individual's views are too 'offensive' to be heard in a public building," said Ayling. 

The complaint submitted to the Tribunal has been made on the grounds that the district council and the private security company working that night had discriminated against the group - which holds the opinion that co-governance in New Zealand should end. 

Taupō District Council told Newstalk ZB Plus it has received a copy of the correspondence between the Free Speech Union and the Human Rights Review Tribunal. 

Gardyne said in a statement that a thorough assessment of the risks associated with the event, both to the venue and to council staff, had concluded they were too high to allow it to proceed.

“The organisers were required to have a security presence on-site and an independently-assessed security plan. Neither of these had been adequately provided,” the council chief executive said.

“The booking fails to meet the requirements for a safe and well-managed event and therefore we have contacted organisers to inform them that their booking has been declined.”

A poll released in September showed 48 per cent of respondents want a referendum on Māori co-governance. Only 17 per cent said no. 

The ACT Party was the only party during Election 2023 that backed a referendum on co-governance, while every other party either outright rejected it or claimed it wasn't important.