The AM Show sports presenter Mark Richardson has launched a blistering attack on the residents around Eden Park after Sir Ray Avery's charity concert was pulled due to their opposition.
The application to host the concert, originally planned for Waitangi Day 2019, was withdrawn on Thursday due to potential court costs and time pressure.
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Sir Ray said there was nowhere else suitable to hold the event and it would instead be cancelled.
The cancellation comes after media reports claimed Sir Ray Avery's organisation Medicine Mondiale is not living up to expectations.
A Newsroom investigation found the life pods Sir Ray had been fundraising for lacked certification and the goal of saving a million babies was more a marketing figure.
But Richardson said he needed verifiable evidence the concert was not all it claimed to be before he would stop blaming the local residents for the death of babies.
"If the residents can come out and prove to me that his pods don't work or he won't be able to build the pods or the funds will be misappropriated, if they can come out and give me decent evidential proof of that then I won't put the blood of the children who are going to die on the residents of Eden Park," he said.
Newsreader Amanda Gillies disagreed and said Richardson should look into the investigation to see the questions raised about Medicine Mondiale.
"I think you've got to have a look at some of the investigations because I didn't really know much about it until a week ago and that's the issue Mark," she said.
"People have come out saying it is murky with where that money is going, how many pods have been built, where's the certification, and he's just fobbing it off.
"And how many babies are actually going to be saved? He (Sir Ray) admitted that it was just a marketing figure. There are lots of questions that haven't been answered yet so where is our money going?"
But Richardson said it was unfortunate to see people casting a shadow over Sir Ray, who is just trying to help.
"What I'm seeing about this guy is muck raking, nothing short of muck raking," he said.
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