Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has welcomed today’s High Court decision dismissing the judicial review brought against Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) following its cancellation of a venue booking to two Canadian far-right speakers.

The High Court found that RFA acted lawfully and cancelled the event exclusively on health and safety grounds and unaffected by any mayoral view.

Mayor Phil Goff says he is pleased but not surprised by the judgement.

“RFA acted entirely within its powers, cancelling the venue booking due to the public safety risk. That was the right decision and I supported it at the time.

“Equally, I made clear my view that people who want to come to our country purely to demean and abuse people on the basis of their faith, race or culture are not welcome here.

“The views espoused by the Canadian pair are repugnant, designed to denigrate minority communities, stir up ethnic tensions and incite hatred.

“Auckland is a proudly multicultural, multifaith city. We don’t need people coming from outside our country to tell us that we shouldn’t embrace our multicultural identity,” Mayor Goff said.

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