Auckland City Council had sought a court injunction to stop the "Boobs on Bikes" parade, scheduled for Wednesday, saying it breached a bylaw banning offensive public events.

But Judge Nicola Mathers said while opponents may find the parade offensive or tasteless, the fact that 80,000 people had gathered for a similar event last year meant a significant number of people did not agree with the critics, New Zealand Press Association said.

The parade on Queens St., featuring leather-clad local and international porn stars, is part of an "Erotica Expo" organised by self-styled "porn king" Steve Crow.

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Topless Porn Star Parade Organizer Runs for Mayor

The West Australian, 10/13/07 - Steve Crow made his name as New Zealand’s pornography king by organising an annual Boobs on Bikes parade of topless women along the main street of Auckland. Now he wants to be mayor.

Mr Crow, 50, managing director of adult entertainment empire CVC Group Ltd., is among 15 candidates trying to wrest leadership of the City of Sails from a millionaire muesli maker who has vowed to ban the parade. Results of the postal ballot will be announced as soon as tomorrow.

“I run a porn company, so what?” said Mr Crow, who ranked fourth in the latest opinion poll. “I genuinely believe Auckland is broken and someone needs to get in there and fix it.”

New Zealand has a history of breaking new ground in politics. It was the first country to give women the vote and the first to elect a transsexual to the national Parliament. Still, Mr Crow’s candidacy is helping fuel a backlash from Christian and pro-family groups that are smarting from the legalisation of gay unions and prostitution nationwide.

“What has happened to New Zealand that people think a candidate like this is acceptable?” asked Bob McCroskie, national director of Family First New Zealand. The group led protests in 2003 and 2004 that failed to halt the prostitution and same-sex union laws.

Mr Crow trailed more mainstream candidates in opinion polls.

John Banks, a former mayor and police minister, led with 44 per cent support, according to one poll. Incumbent Dick Hubbard had 35 per cent and Alex Swaney, head of the city’s central retailers’ association, was at 7 per cent, followed by Mr Crow at 3 per cent.

The other hopefuls included a lesbian cafe owner, a tattooed music promoter and artist, and an anti-abortion campaigner.

Mr Crow, who sells X-rated films, toys, clothing and magazines in 60 countries and co-owns Mermaids strip club and Moon Bar escort lounge in Auckland, made no apologies. He said he aimed to be third and might run again.

“The whole culture of the current council is to make things as difficult or expensive as possible,” he said. “They need to step back and stop telling people what to do.”

Mr Banks, 60, rated Mr Crow a “serious” candidate. As for the Boobs on Bikes parade, he said: “If 100,000 people get pleasure looking at women going down Queen Street without their clothes on, and it’s legal, well that’s the state of affairs.”

Mr Hubbard, 60, owner of Hubbard Foods, is not so sanguine. If re-elected, he planned to change the local parade laws to ban nudity. He had not blocked the event because he risked outlawing “legitimate parades”.

“Porn king for mayor? You’ve got to be joking,” Mr Hubbard said. “He hasn’t got the foggiest about how Auckland runs.”

The 2006 Census showed just over half of New Zealanders called themselves Christians — down 5 percentage points from 2001. Members of evangelical and so-called fundamentalist strains surged 26 per cent in that time.

Still, Christians may be a minority by 2011. The number of people who indicated no religious affiliation rose 26 per cent to more than a third of the population from 2001 to 2006.

Noel Hayes, a pensioner in Auckland, backed Mr Crow.

“It’d be a colourful mayoral reign,” said Mr Hayes, 59. “Auckland needs these sorts of people.”

Topless Porn Star Parade - 2007

ANI, 8/19/07 - Auckland's famous annual Boobs on Bike parade is set to hit the city streets again, after getting a green light from the Auckland City Council.

According to the organisers, the notorious parade of topless porn stars, a lead up to the annual Erotica Expo, will attract a crowd of over 100,000 people, principally men, to the city's Queen street.

The parade, which starts at 12.45pm on August 29 and runs from upper Queen St to Quay St, is being seen as the biggest parade in New Zealand this year.

Parade organiser Sandy Watts said that it is for the first time that Auckland City Council has approved it without any objection. Last year Mayor Dick Hubbard supported attempts to ban the procession, saying it was degrading to women.

Watts said that organisers, who had met with council staff on several occasions this year to discuss the parade, were happy with the result.

However, Conservative family lobby group Family First NZ has condemned the Auckland City Council's decision.

"This is a `lame duck' council who is not willing to act in the best interests of families and children," Stuff.co.nz quoted National Director Bob McCoskrie, as saying.

McCoskrie added that Family First was calling for an urgent resolution of the council revoking the permit.

Topless Porn Star Parade - 2006

AP, 8/23/06 - Two dozen bare-breasted porn stars paraded on motorcycles and military vehicles down the main street of New Zealand's biggest city on Wednesday after beating efforts by Auckland officials to prevent the promotional stunt.

Thousands of people, many of them clicking away with cell phone cameras, lined the street for the parade by male and female porn actors, most semi-clad in black leather, to publicize an erotica show which opens in Auckland later this week.

The crowd — four deep in some places — was reportedly bigger than that for the city's annual Santa Parade at Christmas time.

Organizer Steve Crow, a local multimillionaire porn movie distributor and producer, earlier had won approval for the parade from the city council, infuriating it's conservative mayor and several councilors.

Mayor Dick Hubbard said he would review local bylaws in a bid to prevent any more topless parades in Auckland.

"We do want a vibrant city (but) I think the parade does our image harm rather than good," Hubbard said

Topless Porn Star Parade Gets Approved by City Council 

New Zealand Herald, 8/7/06 - A parade of topless porn stars down Queen St has been approved by Auckland City Council staff without telling councillors who want to stop it.

Erotica Expo organiser Steve Crow has permission for the lunchtime parade on August 23 featuring up to 30 porn stars in cars or on the back of motorcycles from Karangahape Rd to the bottom of Queen St. The expo opens at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane two days later.

Mr Crow has held informal Boobs on Bikes parades down Queen St since 2003 but this is the first time he has sought and been given permission from the council's events and promotions manager, Annabel Lush.

The first councillors knew of the event was a memo in their mail boxes on Friday that noted it "may cause concern and offence to a number of people as the parade will include several topless women".

In the memo, Ms Lush said it was not illegal to be topless in Queen St. As long as the parade met traffic requirements it was the democratic right of the organiser to stage it, she said.

Councillors yesterday raised opposition to the staff decision at a planning meeting and sought urgent answers on whether the parade complied with council bylaws and events policy.

Last night, recreation and community services manager Cameron Parr said a clause in the bylaw to decline consent on "objectively justifiable and reasonable grounds" was not used.

Even if consent was declined there was nothing to stop Mr Crow holding another informal parade.

City Vision councillor Cathy Casey said it was completely wrong for Mr Crow to argue that the parade celebrated the fact it was illegal to discriminate on the basis of sex in New Zealand and that women were entitled to be topless.

She said Boobs on Bikes was being promoted on the expo website to "kick off" a commercial venture exploiting women.

Councillor Noelene Raffills said the parade was outside the norms of what was acceptable and anyone in Queen St at the time would see it.

"It is not like a television set you can turn off or a book you can shut."

Another councillor, Bill Christian, supported the decision and noted it had the backing of the police.

"I appreciate the human form and I enjoy it but I doubt if I will be there to see the parade," he said.

The police unit that looks after Auckland City events has approved the parade and will have officers on hand primarily to ensure road safety.

Mr Crow said the parade was about promoting the show but it was also a social statement.

After reading about two women being arrested for flashing their breasts in a protest, he started Boobs on Bikes to highlight that it was illegal to discriminate against women going topless.

Inspector Terry Van Dillen of police northern communications said the issue was one of "common sense".

"There are obviously laws against nudity in public, but there has to be some intent [to offend] as well."

Police would have to receive a complaint before acting and each incident would be based on its merits.

"A bit of common sense is required here," Mr Van Dillen said. "If it becomes quite offensive to other people then stronger action could be taken."

Family First Offers Clothes for Topless Porn Stars

Scoop.co.nz, 8/9/06 - Family First is offering support for the topless porn girls who plan to parade down Queen St later this month.

"The organisers have obviously not realised that the planned date is still during winter," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First.

"Typical of Auckland weather, there is a high likelihood that it will either be cold and/or wet."

In the qenuine interest of the porn girls, Family First is offering each girl a bra and sweatshirt, designed to minimise the effects of the NZ climate.

"We are genuinely concerned for their welfare and health."

"NZ families will sleep easier knowing that the girls are covered up and not having their health put at risk," says Bob McCoskrie.

"They need our support."

Opposition to Porn Parade

Scoop.co.nz, 8/14/06 - Auckland City Councillors inundated with opposition to Porn Parade

In response to a call by Family First, individuals and families in Auckland and nationwide have inundated Auckland City councillors with their opposition to the Erotica Porn Parade scheduled for a Queen St lunchhour next week.

"Councillors have reported that they have received almost 10 times the number of emails objecting to this parade as compared with objections to the planned Rates increase," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First.

"This is how strongly families feel about the planned display of nudity and the promotion of the pornography industry in a public place – especially in such a public place as Queen St during the busy lunchtime hour."

Section 125 of the Crimes Act clearly states that it is a crime to "wilfully (do) any indecent act in any place to which the public have or are permitted to have access, or within view of any such place."

"Most NZ’ers know it is inappropriate to be topless in a public place – which is why there is no acceptance of the behaviour in schools, workplaces or in public gatherings," says Mr McCoskrie. "The pornography industry is also destructive to individuals and families, and should not be allowed this kind of profile in NZ."

"It is ironic that this parade is taking place at the same time that the taxpayer has just paid out more than $163,000 for seminars for Police staff caught with pornographic emails, run by Rape Crisis and adult sexual offending and internet safety organizations," says Mr McCoskrie.

Family First asks the Auckland City Council to act on behalf of all families and veto the permission given to the Erotica Parade.

Police Say Topless in Auckland is Not Indecent

Reuters, 08/21/06 - A parade of 30 topless porn stars riding motor bikes down the main street of New Zealand's biggest city will go ahead, officials said Monday.

Auckland City Council Monday gave the "Boobs on Bikes" parade the green light, saying there was no legal reason to stop it despite concerns by some councilors that granting it a permit would add legitimacy to the event.

The parade, part of an "Erotica Expo" organized by local entrepreneur Steve Crow, will proceed down Auckland's Queen Street from midday Wednesday.

Police earlier said they did not regard the parade of leather-clad porn stars as indecent.

"In the opinion of the police, given the standards of decency observed in this day and age, a female being topless in a parade on a weekday in Queen St will not in itself constitute an indecent act," police inspector Rob Abbott wrote in a letter to The New Zealand Herald newspaper Monday.

However, the behavior of the participants during the parade might still attract the attention of police, he warned.

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