When I saw Brian Tamaki on the news last night, he looked more pompous than ever.

Pompous - not pious.

Because he was the one who instructed his so-called followers to disrupt that drag artist’s kids show and protest at the Auckland Rainbow Parade at the weekend.

From the pictures I’ve seen, both of those events looked pretty ugly. His idea. Under his instructions. And I’ve had a gutsful of this guy. And we need to be condemning him in the strongest way possible.

Because, it seems that’s all we can do. Sadly.

They were doing a particularly vigourous haka at the end of the parade. That wasn’t free speech. That was hate.

I saw one person saying on the news that Tamaki’s Man Up crew is nothing more than a gang and should be treated that way.

This person made particular mention of the gang patch legislation - saying that these guys ride around on motorbikes wearing patches, So why aren’t they included in the gang patch ban?

The organiser of the rainbow parade says there is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech - and what we saw at the weekend was hate. And I completely agree.

The parade organiser says it was clear that they had set-out to intimidate, to bully, and get their message of misinformation across.

I agree they wanted to intimidate. And I agree they were a bunch of bullies. But I don't know about the misinformation bit, because you never get any information from these clowns (misinformation or otherwise).

And, as per usual, we had weasel words from the Prime Minister when he was asked about it yesterday.

He said he respects peoples right to free speech and he respects people's right to protest, but he said Tamaki’s puppets “went too far”.

You're damn right they went too far. Even by turning up, they went too far. What the PM should have done yesterday was condemn Brian Tamaki and his deluded followers in the strongest way possible.

He should have done what Auckland mayor Wayne Brown did. He said it was nothing short of “thuggery”. Which is a great way to describe it.

I thought Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick was a bit light on it when she said that the rainbow community needs love and support, not hateful rhetoric.

I know what she’s saying, but I want her to condemn these people too.

Because, for me, this wasn’t free speech - it was hate speech.

And remember that this kind of thing isn’t new for this Destiny lot. You’ll remember they got all excited about an event at the library in christchurch that time when there was an event with people in drag reading stories to kids.

And there’s no stopping them.

Last night Tamaki was saying that he doesn’t think they’ve gone far enough yet. And he challenged the Prime Minister to get show some fortitude and to do a Donald Trump, and declare that only two genders will be recognised in New Zealand. Male and female.

So these guys are dangerous. Not because of their mickey mouse beliefs, but because of the way they express them.

If someone doesn’t like the idea of same sex people being in relationships - they’re allowed to feel that way. If someone thinks we should go back to the way it used to be, with just boys and girls and men and women, they can think that too. Good luck to them.

But when people take it to the next level - like we saw at the weekend - that’s not ok by me.

I tell you what else isn’t ok. The fact that this outfit is out there bullying people - dishing out their hatred - and because they call themselves a church, they enjoy all the tax benefits that come with that.

A few years back, some Destiny Church charities were removed from the charities register for not filing their annual tax returns.

Before that happened, more than 70,000 people signed a petition calling for Charities Services to strip the church of its tax-exempt status.

I’ve had a look at the register today and the Destiny Church New Zealand Trust is still there. There are still some regional branches registered as a charity too. Which is a rort.

And, until the government delivers on its promise to crackdown on so-called “charities” not paying tax, we just have to accept that it is what it is.

But that doesn’t mean we have to sit back and let these people do what they want. We can’t make them pay tax. We can’t tell them to take their patches off - because they’re not a gang.

But we can stand up and tell them to pull their heads in.

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I’m starting to wonder whether it was just a fluke that we managed to build things like the big hydro dams back in the day without them falling over. Without them falling apart. Cracking under the pressure.

Because, when you consider achievements like that, it makes it laughable that we don’t seem to be capable anymore of really simple stuff like fixing roads.

An example is Halswell Junction Road, in Christchurch. Three repairs in the past 12 months and now it needs to be done a fourth time. The local councillor has had a gutsful, and I don’t blame him.

What are some other examples that show just how average we’ve become? What about that time they flooded Cromwell and created the new lake? Was it just a fluke that we pulled that off without it leaking all over the place?

The Lyttelton tunnel. How on earth did we do that without it caving in?

We used to be able to do all those things. These days, we can’t even fix a road properly.

We can build rockets and send them into space. We can build boats that win the America’s Cup.

In fact, we’re better at those things than we are at fixing roads. Which is crazy, isn’t it?

City councillor Andrei Moore is saying today that the repair work on Halswell Junction Road has been sub-standard and parts of it still aren’t level.

What’s more, people are telling him that their houses are being shaken by traffic more than ever.

So why’s that, do you reckon? I’ll tell you what I think but, first, here’s the council’s explanation.

Its head of transport has told our newsroom that the problem with Halswell Junction Road is that it isn’t strong enough for them to use asphalt, and so they have to use chip seal.

And, obviously, chip seal is hopeless on that particular road - which is a major route.

The thing is, it’s not just Halswell Junction Road, is it? It seems to be everywhere. All over the place - so-called repairs are being done, over-and-over again.

Maybe calling them “repairs” is generous, because something is only repaired once it doesn’t need fixing again.

And do you know why this is happening? It’s easy. She’ll be right.

This “she’ll be right” attitude is rife everywhere. It’s rife in councils, where the processes they use to hire contractors has become so complex, that once a roading outfit is in the system, they’re pretty much there for life.

Even if they do cruddy work - they’re in the system, they’ve got a purchase order number, invoicing is all set-up and it's way too much work for the council to find someone who might do the job better.

And hey, we can still tick things off the to-do list - even if we have to get them back to do it all over again in three months time.

She’ll be right. The companies that do the actual work. If it doesn’t work first time, we’ll come back and sort it out. Don’t bother telling the council that chip seal is hopeless and we should be using asphalt. Don’t upset the apple cart. She’ll be right. Job for life.

And you and I, we’re part of the problem too.

Because, generally, we just shrug our shoulders and put up with this lame she’ll be right attitude when, what we should be doing, is making more of a noise about it.

And when I say noise, I mean actually putting people into these councils who are prepared to push back when they hear nonsense such as Halswell Junction Road not being strong enough to take the weight of asphalt.

I’m talking about putting people into councils who will push back at that and say, do something about that. Don’t just keep pouring chipseal. Make the road stronger.

People who will challenge the way their council monitors performance and quality.

People who will do there everything to get rid of “she’ll be right”.

Because, until that happens —until everyone ups their game— nothing is going to change. And the same repairs are going to continue to be done over and over again.

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Today on Politics Friday John MacDonald was joined in studio by National’s Matt Doocey and Labour’s Tracey McLellan.

They discussed yesterday’s supermarket announcement: does the Government really believe another player will enter the scene, or is it all just talk?

Why has some mental health funding been redistributed when New Zealand continues to suffer through a mental health crisis?

A bit closer to home, the price for our police to hire helicopters is blowing out each year, will Christchurch ever get its chopper?

And is a pie really a healthy option for a school lunch?

LISTEN ABOVE

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