The Wellington City Council has revoked police permission to trespass people from Anzac Day services held on its property.
It comes after Wellington man Richard Noble arrived at the Ataturk Turkish memorial last Anzac Day carrying a banner with the words "Recognise Armenian Genocide" on it. But a police officer warned him that, if he waved his banner, he would be asked to leave and he would be arrested for trespass if he refused to do so.
Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow had issued recurring Anzac Day permission to police to allow them to trespass from the land, which is owned by the city council.
A statement from the council on Friday said police had told council they no longer needed the delegated trespass powers and McKerrow had since revoked it.
It came after the Independent Police Conduct Authority looked into the police action last Anzac Day following a complaint from Noble.
In February Noble received a letter from the IPCA informing him that police had accepted that the officer's comments to him on Anzac Day were wrong and that they "had the effect of preventing you from undertaking lawful protest activities".
The letter said: "The authority has agreed with police that they will contact you to apologise for the way you were dealt with.
The authority noted that as well as speaking to the officer concerned, police would develop a training package to "further educate frontline staff about their powers and expectations at protests".
Noble on Friday said he was yet to receive the apology. The council revocation was probably a good thing as it removed a “grey area”, he said.
Police retained their usual arrest powers – for example, he could still be arrested for breach of the peace if he made a scene at an Anzac service.
The killing of between 664,000 and 1.2 million Armenian people by the Ottoman – now Turkish – government between 1915 and 1916 is recognised as genocide by 32 countries including the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Russia.New Zealand does not officially recognise it as a genocide.