Thousands march against seabed and foreshore legislation

11.45am

Thousands of people marched from the national museum Te Papa on Wellington's waterfront to Parliament today, led by Maori activist Titewhai Harawira sitting in the front seat of a car.

The hikoi to protest against the Government's foreshore and seabed policy, set off in light drizzle and gale force winds half an hour behind schedule at 10.30am.

Hikoi organiser and academic Pita Sharples led 50 Maori warriors who performed a haka at the front of the march.

About 100 banners, carrying anti-foreshore and seabed policy messages and the names of iwi from around the country, could be seen as the hikoi set off from the national museum Te Papa.

One man began blowing a brass horn, but was told by others to stop.

Chants on the march included "One two three four, Maori own the foreshore, two four six eight, don't you bloody confiscate".

Organisers appeared to be struggling to arrange the order of people the march, due to sheer numbers, estimated to be several thousand.

Almost an hour into the march, as the leaders snaked along Lambton Quay, the tail of the march left Te Papa.

Police said 400 people who arrived by train at Wellington Railway Station did not make the start in time and were waiting to join up in Lambton Quay.

A Wellington City Council spokesman told NZPA the protest march was the biggest in the city since the Springbok Tour protests of the 1980s, which drew about 20,000.

Homosexual law reform marches in the 1980s and union marches of the 1990s also drew huge amounts of protesters, he said.

Today's hikoi had turned into a "spectacle" for office and shop workers in central Wellington, he said.

While the bad weather kept many inside, others had stepped on to footpaths to watch the protesters pass.

An NZPA reporter said a woman who had been yelling abuse at some of the marchers had to be taken into a shop and calmed down by police.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, who co-ordinated the Government's forshore and seabed policy, said he was prepared to meet hikoi leaders.

"I am very happy to meet...there is no closed door here," he told National Radio.

Parliament's security co-ordinator Jonathan Barlow said the high winds in Wellington meant that a marquee could not be set up in the grounds.

Instead it had been agreed to allow four buses on to the forecourt to allow elderly people to take shelter if the weather deteriorated.

- NZPA

Continuous updates