A 12-year-old boy who confronted two protesters during an Anzac Day service in Wellington has got the country talking.
James Broome-Isa has sparked a national debate about whether it's appropriate to protest on the special day after he chided the protesters.
A poll on The AM Show on Wednesday shows two thirds of New Zealanders (67 percent) agreed with Jason, and believe protesting on Anzac Day is inappropriate.
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Newshub had been interviewing the two protesters, Ellie Clayton and Laura Drew from Peace Action Wellington, who laid a wreath at the Cenotaph and a plaque for the civilians allegedly killed in Afghanistan during a New Zealand SAS-led operation in 2010.
However David Broome, chief of staff for New Zealand First, confronted the pair, telling them their protest left "a sour taste" - and his son James followed that up by expressing his disgust at the timing of their demonstration.
"For goodness sake: do it tomorrow, do it the day before, do it any day but today! It is wrong, wrong, wrong," the boy said. "You are so inappropriate. I cannot believe this. I really think it's a joke.
"You aren't here to say 'lest we forget, we need to remember the dead', you're here to say 'oh look, it's free publicity, let's go and make the most of it'."
When accused of trying to hijack the Anzac service at the Cenotaph to make a political point, Ms Drew said she was simply there to remember all those who had died as a result of war.
"You can't remove politics from war," she said.
But that simply attracted even more of a verbal assault from James, who was now incensed.
"Oh, give me strength!" he yelled. "This is not Parliament!"
"This is a place to remember those killed in war, and this is a three-year-old kid [who has died]," Ms Clayton protested, but young James was having none of it.
"Ever since we moved to Wellington - this is coming up to about nine years ago - we have been here on the 25th, year after year after year. We have never seen you! We have never seen you before!" James said.
When Ms Drew then queried James about whether he'd considered all of those who'd died in war, he had a clear response.
"Yes I do! Why do you think I'm goddamn here?!" before Ms Drew again challenged him on whether he'd considered civilian deaths.
"This is Anzac, not civilians!"
In their earlier interview with Newshub, the pair had expressed that it's important people remember "the bad along with the good", especially if armed forces are responsible for both.
"We talk about honour on Anzac Day but we need to remember that it's overwhelmingly civilians who are killed," Ms Drew had said.
"The people who were killed in those villages they were just living their lives, like the three-year-old that died. I don't have words for that."
Newshub.
