Wellington Protest Ride

Pete: 00:00:14

Are you tired of the ever rising cost of motorcycle registration here in New Zealand? If you're nodding your head, you're not alone. I'm Pete and this is Keep It Twisted, the official podcast of magnz on Sunday.

Last week, I rode my motorcycle from Christchurch to Wellington to take part in the protest ride to support Mark Chapp in his High Court case against acc.

I set off early on Sunday morning and I met with several other riders at the ferry terminal in Picton before we crossed over from the mainland to Wellington to meet Richard Ant and the other members of the MAGNZ committee.

I had another early start on Monday morning, riding the planned route to the High Court near the Beehive before heading to the rally point at Waitangi Park. The turnout was fantastic. Over 100 motorcycles, including riders who travelled from as far away as Cromwell, Auckland, Whanganui and the Hawke's Bay.

Everyone was pumped and the atmosphere felt like a carnival. I spent the hour before the protest talking to as many people as possible.

And what you're going to hear today are the recordings of those conversations in Waitangi Park. You'll hear from over 20 different riders and their bikes.

You'll also hear from the chief executive of magnz, Richard Tohu, the safety briefing from Anse Nathan, and the noise of the bikes as they left for the ride to the High Court.

You'll hear from more riders outside the High Court and from Mark Chappell just before he went into court and again just after he came out and shared the judge's directions. The recording ends with a few words from Richard Tohu, the chief executive of magnz. I wonder if you'd like to tell us who you are and where you've come from today?

Piri: 00:01:45

Yeah, sure. My name's Piri from Te Ranga Moana.

Pete: 00:01:48

And why have you come to protest today in Wellington, Perry?

Piri: 00:01:51

We've come to back up Mark to get all these questions answered if we can.

Pete: 00:01:59

And what bike are you riding?

Piri: 00:02:00

I'm riding an electric line,: 1580

Pete: 00:02:05

Can we start her up for the show Piri?

Piri: 00:02:08

Yeah sure?

Shane: 00:02:22

My name is Shane. I'm from Foxton Beach. I've just come to support the lads, really? And what have you ridden down, Shane? CB600F. How much does that cost you on the road?

I think it's 605 at the minute, but I think it's going up again. A lot of money, eh?

Pete: 00:02:37

It's. It's ridiculous. Yeah, stupid. We appreciate you coming down. Enjoy the day. Awesome, mate, cheers.

Shane: 00:02:43

We will.

John: 00:02:43

I'm John from Marston. So just come across to support everybody. And I just think the registration hikes are bloody ridiculous.

Pete: 00:02:49

And what have you written down John?

John: 00:02:51

The CF Moto 650.

Pete: 00:02:54

How do you find that?

John: 00:02:55

It's good, but it's a LAMS approved bike, you know, and I'm whacked with 605 bucks going up next year.

Pete: 00:03:00

It's ridiculous, but it's because it's under a certain power to weight ratio.

John: 00:03:04

Yeah, that's deemed to be safe for a novice rider. I've had a license for years, but just getting back into riding, I would.

Pete: 00:03:10

buying something bigger or pre: 1980

John: 00:03:13

I looked at a Katana. That's how I started getting into it. I've got a mate that's got two katanas and he said, I'll sell you one.

And then my wife said, I'd like you to get something that's a bit safer and, you know, ABS and all that. So honestly, I would have been better off buying a 7,5 Katana with crap old suspension and no ABS and everything else.

And it would have been way cheaper.

Frog: 00:03:41

My name's Frog. I've ridden from Upper Hut.

Pete: 00:03:44

And what are you riding today, Frog?

Frog: 00:03:46

Motor Guzzi behind you.

Pete: 00:03:47

Do you want to start her up and let me record the exhaust?

Frog: 00:03:49

Yeah, all right. I'll tell you what, you're going to laugh when you see this start up.

Pete: 00:03:52

What year is it, Frog?

Frog: 00:03:54

79.

Pete: 00:03:55

Beautiful. Frog's pulled out his mallet. Can't beat a V twin Frog all the time.

Bruce: 00:04:16

I'm Bruce, I've come from realmetting.

Pete: 00:04:18

And who have you ridden down with today, Bruce?

Bruce: 00:04:19

Just by myself, actually.

Pete: 00:04:21

Yeah.

Bruce: 00:04:21

And I thought there might have been more motorbikes on the motorway, but I. Only saw me, I think a few people come in last night. What are you riding? This is a BMW. She's an 850.

Pete: 00:04:34

Fire her up, buddy.

Bruce: 00:04:45

The biggest thing that's in my brain is that they should be lowering the registration because the more motorbikes that we have on the road, this is reverse psychology. The more people are aware of motorbikes, therefore there should be less accidents.

And coming into town today, 90% of the cars, I would say, had one person in them.

Now you imagine if 25% of that were riding motorbikes, we wouldn't have the congestions, we wouldn't have the parking problem problems, people would be aware of them. It's just crazy.

Pete: 00:05:18

I agree wholeheartedly. Absolutely agree.

Bruce: 00:05:21

Yeah.

It'll be somebody who's come up with this idea and it shouldn't be the Member of Parliament we're trying to talk to, it should be the idiots that are advising them. New Zealand should be doing this and doing that.

Pete: 00:05:33

Yeah. You have to wonder who designed the policy. Hopefully we'll find that out through the High Court action.

Bruce: 00:05:38

Well, yeah, hopefully. And they need to be held accountable, you know, what's their reasoning?

Emerson: 00:05:45

My name is Emerson. I come from Auckland. I rode from Auckland yesterday and arrived on time for the support to the proceeding against the more expensive accele V.

Pete: 00:05:57

That's an excellent effort, Emerson. Well done you. And what are you riding? I'm riding Suzuk Boulevard.

Emerson: 00:06:03

M50, 800cc above 650cc.

Pete: 00:06:07

Well done for coming down. We appreciate you making the effort, buddy. Thank you, sir.

Warwick: 00:06:11

Right, Warwick Vaughan. I'm from the Kapiti Coast Paraparam and I'm only riding a Honda 500 today. But I came down on that because my Moto Ghazi's got a sidecar on.

I never got through the traffic.

Pete: 00:06:23

No, it had been a struggle. Them narrow streets in Te Aro wouldn't have been doable.

Warwick: 00:06:26

Been able to follow a filter, you know.

Pete: 00:06:28

And how long you been riding?

Warwick: 00:06:30

Since I was 15. I've just turned 80.

Pete: 00:06:32

You're looking very well on that.

Warwick: 00:06:33

Thanks, mate.

Pete: 00:06:34

Yeah, good effort. We appreciate you coming down today. Hope you enjoyed the day.

Warwick: 00:06:37

No worries, mate.

Pete: 00:06:38

Yeah.

Matt: 00:06:39

My name's Matt, I'm local, I ride an fjr.

Pete: 00:06:41

And why have you come to ride with us today, Matt?

Matt: 00:06:43

I just don't think the billing system's fair.

I actually work in a motorbike shop and we've had three staff off in the last few years with long term ACC payments and not one of them was on a road registered vehicle, one was on a racetrack and two of them were off road on dirt bikes. A lot of the customers we get coming into work can barely afford the maintenance on their bikes.

They're running tyres down to belts, brake pads down to bare metal and they fail their warrant and they want to rebook repairs but they just don't have the finances for it. They're not even on large capacity bikes, most of them, they're on small capacity bikes. Whether you're on a large capacity bike or not.

That system of deciding who pays the most is not fair. When motorcycles aren't at fault, most are accidents. Then why isn't it spread evenly across the cars that hit them?

When most of the accidents that I know of in my life in the last few years that have had people off work for months at a time on accident are on either race bikes or off road dirt bikes.

I mean, to be honest, working on the service department counter of a motorbike shop, most of the large capacity bikes that come in are owned by 40 plus people who have probably got most of their hooligan stuff out of their system. They're actually all similar to the people that are here now.

Pete: 00:07:43

Yeah. If we look around the car park, there's a lot of fellas who look like me, you know, middle aged and.

Matt: 00:07:49

They're actually the sort of riders that probably tell someone like me off for acting like a dickhead, not riders that normally get into trouble. The system just doesn't, doesn't make any sense.

Josh: 00:07:56

is morning. I've got the BMW S: 1000

Pete: 00:08:00

And why have you come out today? To protest?

Josh: 00:08:02

Oh, just the prices are going up in regos. It's a wee bit unfair. I feel so coming down and support the boys.

Pete: 00:08:07

Well, it's good to see you. Thanks for turning out.

Josh: 00:08:09

Yeah, cool, likewise.

Simon: 00:08:11

by. I ride this little old GS: 1200

So, yeah, no, I'm doing my bit to be heard. Really.

Pete: 00:08:23

Excellent. Well, it's good to see you. Anybody else?

Adam: 00:08:25

as well and I'm on the Suzuki: 1250

It's not my only bike but I thought I'd bring this one along because it's the most affected by the changes and also it's got the loudest exhaust.

Pete: 00:08:37

smooth. And that's the BMW R: 1200

Adam: 00:08:57

Did you hear just before somebody was playing some music, the most appropriate song for this. We're not going to take it.

Pete: 00:09:01

Yeah, that's the MAGNZ theme tune. It's also the music we use on the start of the podcast.

Adam: 00:09:06

Brilliant.

Pete: 00:09:06

So fellas, are you interested in saying a few words?

Tara: 00:09:09

Happy to. My name's Tara, living in Wellington. I've got two bikes.

I'm here on the the dual purpose and lucky for these gentlemen, I've left the the big cruiser at home because the exhaust on that would give them envy.

Pete: 00:09:20

Obnoxious.

Tara: 00:09:21

Obnoxious. Dial to 11 on attention seeking.

Pete: 00:09:25

I like it.

Tara: 00:09:26

I'm here because Mark said there's this protest on. Yep, I'm there 100%.

And of course, I'm worried about, you know, the levy, especially having two bikes, because you just, you know, you're getting bent over a barrel twice. But the thing that really grinds my bloody gears is, is these electric scooters. The research came out last week. What was it?

Three and a half times more likely to have head injuries. They're paying $0 into the system and we're subsidizing them. That's wrong.

Pete: 00:09:52

And yourself?

Mark: 00:09:52

G'. Day. I'm Mark. I'm from Lower Hut. I'm on a Triumph Speed Twin. Yeah. And why have you come out today, Mark? Just

Just to lend my support. It's obviously, it's an important thing to be getting on with.

It's now that obviously they had the protest in Auckland and obviously the papers filed in Christchurch. This is local for me, so at least I can do is come down and. Oh,

Pete: 00:10:08

it's good to see you here, Mark.

Mark: 00:10:10

I came from Carton this morning and I'm here because I own a bike.

Pete: 00:10:15

That's: 1200

Frog: 00:10:22

I can.

Pete: 00:10:28

Sounds punchy. Hey, bro, I run the Mag NZ podcast. I wonder if you like to tell us who you are, where you've come from today.

Callum: 00:10:37

My name is Callum. I come all the way from Wainuyamara.

Pete: 00:10:41

Have you?

Callum: 00:10:41

Good.

Pete: 00:10:41

Have you, man?

Callum: 00:10:42

Yeah, Yeah. I have to be here. Yeah. It's not really good, what they're trying to do, do. I say, yeah, yeah.

Pete: 00:10:47

And what bike did you come on today?

Callum: 00:10:50

Yamaha MT09.

Pete: 00:10:51

Excellent. Oh, we appreciate you turning out, man. It's good to see so many people here.

Callum: 00:10:54

No, thanks for having me, though.

Pete: 00:10:56

Excellent. Cheers, bud.

Bruce: 00:10:57

Cheers.

Craig: 00:10:58

Craig Baker.

Pete: 00:10:59

I've come from Blow It Up. Yeah. And what are you riding today, Craig?

Craig: 00:11:02

Harley.

Pete: 00:11:03

Break it. Do you want to start it for me? Oh, I could do that, yeah. Yeah. So it looks pretty new. Is it?

Bruce: 00:11:10

Yeah,.

Pete: 00:11:17

Sounds good, man. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks for talking to me. Cheers.

Bruce: 00:11:24

No problem.

Larry: 00:11:26

Larry Gronoweg. I've come down, really, to see this rally about the ACC levies.

ad a lot more bikes. But that: 2009

But if you don't say nothing, then where would you be?

Pete: 00:11:52

And have you ridden here today, Larry?

Larry: 00:11:55

No, unfortunately, I come by train. All my English bikes are not registered and I just didn't want to. Just couldn't afford the registration pretty much.

You got to choose now because times are tough. Is it fuel in the car, the bike? You know, and I've got a few, so very hard to make that decision.

Pete: 00:12:15

Yeah.

Richard: 00:12:18

Good to see you guys all here in support of Mark Chappell. It's a fairly largest group. We're not here to disrupt and terrorize the public and piss people off. That's not what we're trying to do.

We've told the NZ police that we're going to park outside the courthouse. We will try and do that legally then. I've also told them that we will be there for a maximum of 30 minutes.

So we get there about quarter past nine and then we're going to disperse about quarter to 10. Alright. So it's a respectful, peaceful protest. We're just there to show a presence, get it into the news so that the public can see what's going on.

We're getting rorted and they're getting rorted too. It's only a matter of time.

If we let them get away with doing it to us, they're going to start subjecting other small pockets of society and saying, oh, we think you guys should pay more and you guys should pay more as well. So no, we're not letting that happen. This is Ants. He's our national ride organizer on the Executive. Here you go, Ants. Jump up here, mate.

Antz: 00:13:14

Welcome.

Guys, Just like to reiterate what Rick said. We're going to occupy outside the courthouse as much as we can, but we can't block off for the public. Be safe, look after one another. Keep it twisted, guys.

Richard: 00:13:35

It.

Piri: 00:14:02

We're here, boys.

Pete: 00:14:11

There's a man at the moment, Mark Chappell. How are you, bud?

Mark Chapple: 00:14:14

Yeah, I'm good. Feeling quietly confident.

Pete: 00:14:16

Are you pleased about the turnout?

Frog: 00:14:17

's fantastic. I counted about: 1250

Pete: 00:14:21

That's excellent news, Mark. Good luck in court today. Wish you well.

Mark Chapple: 00:14:24

Thank you very much. I will see.

Thought it was fantastic that a cop led the ride and they were very happy to do so by looks of the look on his face and held up traffic for everyone. And it went really safely and well and just looked fantastic.

Pete: 00:14:38

Well, that's what we're all about, Mark. I'm pleased it's been so well organized.

Mark Chapple: 00:14:41

It has. And look, the police were smiling and the public was smiling and waving.

Pete: 00:14:45

Yeah, everyone waved at us as we rode through the cbd. Yeah.

Mark Chapple: 00:14:48

Yeah. And I think we got a lot of support from it, which Is fantastic.

Pete: 00:14:52

Yeah. All right. Good luck, bud.

Andy: 00:14:58

My name's Andy. I'm from Wellington.

Pete: 00:14:59

And what do you run today, Andy?

Matt: 00:15:02

Kawasaki Vulcan S. Yeah.

Pete: 00:15:03

And why have you come on the ride this morning?

Andy: 00:15:05

Just to support everybody for the cause. That we're all here for. That's getting ACC to either admit they're. At fault or, you know, come up. With a better system.

Pete: 00:15:14

Definitely. Oh, we appreciate you making the effort, bud.

Andy: 00:15:16

No worries. Thank you very much. Appreciate it it.

Pete: 00:15:21

I'm with Byron, who's one of the OG bronze riders from back in the day.

Byron: 00:15:26

Yeah. Basically back in 09, we all got together and led in. We might all remember the bike oil protest.

Frog: 00:15:33

Yeah.

Byron: 00:15:33

So we got involved with it back then and we stayed on the. On the pressure and kept it going. They kept changing their people to deal with and obfuscating it.

There's a good word for a Monday, basically making it harder for everybody. And bronze didn't go away. We phoned a friend. Now here's Mag and they've got her all the way to court. So this is awesome.

Pete: 00:15:55

We're all on the same team, we're all bikers together. And it's great to see you fellas from Bronze here today.

Byron: 00:15:59

Yeah, thank you. No, it's.

We've been trying to work with this for the decades that it's been going for and we want to support everything towards a bit of sense and sensibility out of accident. I mean, once you get hurt. Yeah, great. They look after us.

But taxing us off the road at sort of 800 bucks a bike and it's all based on many, many things. I suggest people go and have a look at it, but pretty much they've decided that we're a victim, so we're going to get taxed and looked at.

So no, it's good to see the support here and all the riders come out from all corners, so it's great.

Pete: 00:16:34

Oh, well, thank you for your efforts in the past and pleased to see you continuing with it now.

Byron: 00:16:38

Appreciate it. Ha. And we'll be here forever.

Pete: 00:16:48

What was your name? Sorry?

Peter Love: 00:16:49

Peter. Love.

Pete: 00:16:50

You definitely win the award for the best turned out individual person here today. What's the story?

Bruce: 00:16:55

I smell the rats and I like to. They're taking more money of us and like to seek higher. So my story is just, you know, supporting all the boys. It's a bit of a rip off, this VINs.

I just got my bike revened on Friday. Cost me six and a half grand.

Pete: 00:17:10

So it's good to see you. You look really well. Dressed. I'm impressed with that man. Thank you.

Richard: 00:17:20

Welcome everybody. We're at the High Court and we're here to support Mark Chappell in this historic court case against extortionate and maybe unlawful ACC levies.

But we're going to let the court decide if they are in fact unlawful. We believe they are. You guys all believe they are. You're all here in support of Mark and Megan Z supports Mark fully as well.

And thank you to all you guys that donated to the give a little because it, you know, it's not cheap and it's probably going to be a drawn out thing. I want you guys to give Mark a round of applause. Come up here, Mark.

Mark Chapple: 00:18:00

Thank you very much. This isn't a easy battle fight process, certainly more than I thought it would be when I said to Rick, how hard could it be?

Bruce: 00:18:12

Well,.

Mark Chapple: 00:18:15

Quite hard it turns out. And I would have given up quite a while ago and Rick might have too had it not been for the support of so many people.

To have this many turnout on a Monday in support of what's going to be just a technical court hearing today is fantastic. It shows the people of the country that we're not that thrilled about it and of course we're not thrilled about it.

Virtually everyone here is paying more than one ACC levy because they have more than one vehicle and multiple people are paying very many of them and absolutely no one gets any more than one lot of ACC coverage. There's nothing fair about that. That is a great deal of what we're arguing in court.

We're also arguing about the numbers that they've come up with to justify this, which we don't think have been done correctly. We believe it to be unlawful the way that they've gone about it, in particular their lack of proper consultation.

That's what we're presenting towards the court and it's going to take quite a while for this argument.

They're trying to push it through to next year past the election, which is somewhat annoying for us because people are currently unable to ride their bikes because they can't afford the registration levies. That is completely unreasonable, completely unreasonable of ACC to have gone ahead and done this.

Unreasonable and we believe unlawful for them to have failed to consult properly on it.

I presented to Richard and Magnz the possibility of us taking this to court and asking the court to at least look at the lawfulness of what they've done, which the court is busy doing currently.

We're in the phase of presenting our arguments, our initial arguments to the Court and we're asking for discovery from ACC and the Crown and turning that into quite a long, drawn out process. But we're getting more and more information as we go and our case is getting more and more solid.

We're actually quite surprised by how solid our case is currently looking. We were hoping just to make them take notice of us, but I think we have done a lot more than that.

And thanks to everyone who has helped and contributed towards it, put money into it and allowed us to get to this point. We're going to continue to fight for it and hopefully get transparency, get ACC to be reasonable.

Maybe the courts will tell them to go back and try again and do it properly. That's what we can really hope for and we'll give it a good go. Thanks very much.

Pete: 00:21:20

So we're outside the courthouse. Mark's just come out. Mark, how have you got on today?

Mark Chapple: 00:21:24

Fantastically. The judge was wonderful.

Everything that the ACC lawyers had been really staunch about and said absolutely no to, she pretty much said yes to within reason because we are a lot closer to agreement than we thought we were.

ACC have been instructed to explain to us what their disclosure means because they've given us multiple Excel files that have a hell of a lot of data in them in a huge number of sheets and it's a little bit like spaghetti at the moment, but I'm pretty sure for a bit of explanation we will understand it in that. And ACC is currently saying we have everything that we're doing pretty much asked for.

There was a bit of to and fro ing about ACC or the lawyers thinking we were asking for data that identified people. And I made it quite clear to the court that it's absolutely not what we're after. We don't want identifying material from anyone. That's not our issue.

We want the bland data and then an explanation of how that data turned into the regulations, because that is what we are arguing about. Does your data lead to the conclusions that you've come up with? That's where our argument is. We don't think it does. Obviously they think it does.

And our argument is in the nuances in the middle of that.

If we've got their data and we can understand it, and I ask also, can we have an explanation of the decision making once you process the data and the judge says what you're after is how the sausages were made and that seems perfectly reasonable. Can ACC explain how you made the sausages? Thank you very much.

Pete: 00:23:09

Is that the language she used?

Mark Chapple: 00:23:11

It is. That's What? I mean, she was lovely.

Pete: 00:23:15

Excellent. So you've come out with smiles on your faces. All three of you were in a good place today.

Frog: 00:23:19

Yeah, yeah. Things look like they're going well.

The judge commended both us and the respondents for being cooperative with each other, which, to a degree, we are.

When they said they absolutely were going to oppose any more disclosure, I didn't understand then that they were doing it on the basis of they are not going to give us any identifying information. And I don't think they understood that that is not what we want.

Now that we understand that and the court understands that that's not what we want and they understand it's not what we want, I understand. Their issue is that they think they can't give us any more without the identifying information.

And that may well be the case because it may well be the case that they have given us everything that we want. We just don't understand it.

Pete: 00:24:06

And am I correct in thinking the judge popped out and saw all the bikes parked outside?

Mark Chapple: 00:24:10

Yes. She was quite impressed. Declined to ride on one because she had broken her ankle on her E bike recently.

But, Sid, we're most welcome to turn up with our friends on the motorbikes again next time. There's the court hearing, however, it's not necessary if I want to stay in Christchurch. So both of them are really nice.

Pete: 00:24:27

Oh, well, I love it. Richie, have you got anything to say for everyone who turned out today?

Richard: 00:24:30

Yeah, just say thanks, everybody, for turning up and supporting Mark and Maggie and Zed, and we're just going to keep sticking at it.

Pete: 00:24:38

Excellent. Well done, fellas. I've enjoyed today. I think it's been a good success. Good result. See you all again soon.

I want to thank everyone who took time to say hi and record some audio with me on Monday, as well as the many riders, pillions and pedestrians who turned up to support Mark both at Waitangi park and the High Court. The atmosphere was incredible and it was great to see people and drivers in the CBD waving and cheering as we rode along the route.

I have to thank Constable Dan and his colleagues at NZ Police, as well as the staff at the High Court, for allowing everything to run smoothly and without interruption. The hearing on Monday was held to set the schedule for the next stage of this judicial review.

As Mark explained, it was encouraging to hear that the judge made a number of decisions that should help us to move forward. It was also great to see the media coverage on TV news and in the national press.

And I look forward to sharing more news about the next developments in due course. This fight isn't over, far from it, but it seems that we are being taken seriously and that the truth is beginning to emerge.

As usual, I'll end by asking you to visit magnz.orgnz to join the fight against the rising levies and stand up for riders rights. While you're there, check out our Give a Little page and the Merch shop.

We've got T shirts and hoodies in a range of colours with the Mag NZ Regeo Freeze and Keep It Twisted designs. Every dollar we raise will support this legal fight and help us keep the pressure on.

Please remember to follow Keep It Twisted in your podcast app so you'll get the next episode delivered straight to your device. And and if you'd like to appear on the show, please drop me a line.

You can reach me through magnz on messenger or schedule a recording session in the links in the notes for this episode. Until the next time, ride safe. Stands up, visors down and keep it twisted.