Tell you what surprises me today; it's the apparent lack of self-awareness from key members of that protest against Posie Parker at the weekend. 

Max Tweedie from Pride Auckland – who wasn’t one of the organisers I believe, but did support the protest – had it put to him in an interview this morning that it was an ugly scene.

And he said, no it wasn’t ugly- there was a lot of joy, a lot of celebration, support for trans communities, and this is what happens when you spread hate and division 

Mate, that was ugly.

By any objective critique of what happened, that was ugly.

I watched videos of a drag queen shoving an old man around the head and of a short angry guy punch an old lady in the face more than once.

That's ugly, and that is unacceptable.

Those protestors who behaved like that ceded the moral high ground to Posie Parker, and that is saying a lot given how obnoxious she is.

But she has it. Because she might be hurtful and obnoxious, but they were violent and that is always worse.

Max Tweedie’s inability to see how ugly that was suggests to me that there are some in that protest group who think that they have a free pass on bad behaviour because they’re on the right side of the argument. It doesn’t work like that.

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• "Not a good look": Luxon on the Posie Parker rally
• Auckland Pride executive director on the planned protest against Posie Parker's rallies

The ends do not justify the means. You don’t get to use violence just because you’re right.

Personally, I had no time for Posie Parker, because I don’t agree with a lot of what she’s saying. But now I also have no time for the protest groups either, because I don’t support what they did, how they represented our country and their lack of contrition. 

So to Max and everyone else who was there who doesn’t want to admit it to themselves, that was ugly at the weekend. 

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