Wellington mayoral hopeful Rob Goulden banned from Taxpayers' Union debates
Photo:
ROB GOULDEN / SUPPLIED
Wellington mayoral candidate Rob Goulden denies he was aggressive towards staff and student volunteers, after being banned from future debates held by the Taxpayers' Union.
Executive director Jordan Williams said the ban resulted from Goulden's behaviour at a mayoral debate run by the union's affiliated student group - Generation Screwed - at Victoria University on Wednesday night.
Goulden was not allowed into the event and told at the door it would run a panel with only five of the 12 candidates for the capital's top job.
"It's been reported to me that Mr Goulden was aggressive and rude to our university student coordinators, and treated Taxpayers' Union staff and volunteers disgustingly," Williams said. "That is totally unacceptable."
"We won't tolerate that kind of behaviour, especially toward young people who care enough to engage in politics. If he tries to attend any of our future events, I have instructed our staff to call the police."
Goulden said he was not aggressive.
"I had two exchanges with people at the door. I was calm, I was polite.
"I did say to them I thought what had happened was discourteous."
He said he had been invited to the event, had not received any update telling him otherwise, and was annoyed they had wasted his time and cherry-picked candidates.
Victoria Relf of the Taxpayers' Union told
NZ Herald
that organisers initially sent expressions of interest to all candidates, but decided to pick "the ones that were either the most high profile or the most relevant to students".
Those were Alex Baker, Ray Chung, Karl Tiefenbacher, Andrew Little and Kelvin Hastie. Diane Calvert was also invited, but did not attend, due to sickness.
In 2009, during his term as a city councillor, Goulden was escorted from a committee meeting by police, after a ban for aggressive behaviour.
Goulden told RNZ that had been "a stitch-up job", saying: "I've never hit anybody, never assaulted anybody - I was upset years ago.
"Just because you remonstrate with someone or put someone in their place... and last night was no different. I wasn't angry, I was disappointed.
"I thought last night was a disgrace."
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