Friday February 11: There are a record 446 new Covid-19 cases in the community today. Video / NZ Herald
LISTEN LIVE TO NEWSTALK ZB:
Protesters occupying Parliament grounds are awake and about before dawn this morning, many having a sleepless night after spending much of yesterday in a tense and at times violent stand-off with police.
More tents have been set up since yesterday including a large marquee erected as protection against the heavy rains forecast for the capital.
Protesters who did not spend the night on the lawns of Parliament are trickling in and gathering in small groups and many more people camping out on streets on patches of grass or in cars around the precinct.
Those taking part in the protest have begun livestreaming from Parliament's front lawn, which they've named "camp freedom". They say today marks day four of the sit-in, and day six of their convoy.
A member of the camp says the crowd is calm and relaxed this morning, and their spirits have not been dampened by a spot of rain and wind.
He pointed to extra protestors heading to Wellington too.
"People who've seen the footage from yesterday have jumped in their cars and are joining the protest today. We are resolute, more people are coming because of the police action, and it's about to get a whole lot bigger."
Another protester has told an NZME reporter they are expecting more people to join them today, including a big group of school children.
"A whole lot of kids will come in today and they'll see how happy and peaceful everyone is," he said.
Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard has voiced concern for the safety of politicians and journalists due to the protests, saying they were receiving serious threats of violence from protesters, including death threats.
Grafitti on the forecourt of Parliament from protesters yesterday read "hang 'em high".
Attorney-General David Parker today poured scorn on the protesters occupying Parliament's grounds calling them a tiny group of misguided people who believed garbage on social media.
A Māori warrior amongst anti-vax and mandate protesters at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
And Parker told AM former deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters had got it wrong after he leveled criticism at police taking action against protesters on Parliament grounds yesterday.
Yesterday the former deputy Prime Minister tweeted that if you occupy private land like Ihumatao you can stay as long as you want and were embraced by the government whereas if you occupied public land you would be trespassed on the same day and labeled a minority.
If you occupy private land like Ihumatao you can stay as long as you want & the govt embraces you. If you occupy public land the govt will trespass you the same day & label you a minority.
I guess it depends which ‘minority’ they decide they want in their team of 5 million.
"You've got a tiny group of New Zealanders who are misguided because they believe the garbage that's on social media and they're blocking roads."
He said the actions of the protesters were preventing local businesses to open, people had been assaulted and abuse and threats had been hurled at journalists.
"This is different. People obviously have the right to protest. I'm a political activist and I've been protesting on the streets since the 1970s but we expect people to abide by the law and we expect the police to enforce it and how they do it is for them."
With humidity at close to 100 per cent, people have abandoned tents and vehicles, resorting to laying in the open air on grass, park benches and, in some cases, even the footpath.
Newstalk ZB reporter Jack Crossland is at Parliament and spoke to Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills.
He said things were a little more slow-moving this morning at the protest camp.
"When I arrived yesterday at 5am everyone was asleep. Today, everyone was already up at that time, because they were nervous after yesterday that the police would come and raid them through the night."
Crossland said there has been a mood shift amongst the crowd from calm, to tense and on edge.
He said the response from the police also appears to be different today. Officers arrived in force just after 8am yesterday, but at 9am today things were very peaceful with only a few officers present.
Side streets around the Parliament precinct, including Molesworth St, remained clogged with vehicles.
Protesters said there had been no further arrests overnight.
Photo / George Heard
More than 120 people were arrested in a volatile day of "unprecedented" protests yesterday, with stretched police indicating the anti-vaccine mandate occupation could last days.
Police arresting anti-vax and mandate protesters at Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell said on top of 900 officers in the district another 150 had been pulled in from across the country, with potentially more to come.
Protesters say the standoff will last until mandates are removed.
By the end of day three, dozens of tents remained on Parliament lawn, with food services and portaloos set up and reports of reinforcements arriving from across the country.
Parking wardens escorted by police began ticketing vehicles on Thursday, which have been blocking streets around Parliament and causing severe disruption to businesses.
It is also understood the NZ Army is being considered to remove vehicles if tow-trucks are unavailable.
Tensions flared as police moved into "enforcement mode", and scores of officers advanced on the crowd.
Protesters pitched tents on Tuesday, the protest's first day - in breach of the rules for protest, which prohibit putting up any structures on Parliament's ground and making threats to the public.
The Speaker, who has jurisdiction over the grounds, asked police to assist Parliamentary security in enforcing the rules, including giving permission to temporarily close the grounds to the public.
During the confrontation, protesters urged each other to remain calm and not to resist arrest.
However, violent scenes ensued and police arrested more than 120 people.
Some protesters, including those with the Voices for Freedom group, have claimed those arrested and instigating violence were separate to the main group of protesters.
The confrontations included ugly scenes of police dragging protesters onto the concrete, physically holding them down as other protesters swarmed around them.
Parnell said officers would stay at Parliament overnight and continue to monitor the protesters. Additional officers would be coming from all over the country in the next few days.
"This was never going to be a short task in front of us," he said.
Police and anti-vax and mandate protesters during their stand-off at Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Officers initially had communication with key organisers, but Parnell said that was no longer the case, citing the multiple groups protesting and a lack of leadership.
"What's transitioned today, you will have seen, is a number of arrests; we have moved now to a state of enforcement action.
"This is unprecedented for New Zealand, we haven't had an occupation of this scale."
Parnell said the health and safety of staff and the public were "paramount" given the nature of the protest.
He acknowledged the right to protest but said activity from protesters had affected people and businesses.
"Our role will remain law and order and fundamentally [to] restore the peace, which we will stay focused on," he said.
Director of criminal justice at University of Canterbury Dr Jarrod Gilbert said the group had been given a suitable amount of time to protest for their cause.
"I think that's appropriate in a democracy, regardless of the merit of the protests. But at a certain point, particularly around blocking the street, it becomes an issue that needs to be resolved.
"When is long enough? I think that most reasonable people would say that time is approaching fast."
Police had handled the situation "as good as we could possibly expect" by removing some protesters and dampening down the protest without escalating problems further.
"We don't want the solution to be worse than the problem. The idea that they've gone in without any shields or batons, without aggression, and are attempting to end the situation as peacefully as possible is something that we should be encouraging."
Political scientist Dr Bryce Edwards said there had been much larger protests at Parliament before, and also ones that involved camping out, but there was "something quite different about this one".
"It is quite a small but passionate group who are here for the long haul. The fact they have set up camps and systems, even feeding themselves; we are into very different territory."
Police arresting anti-vax and mandate protesters at Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There was also an "incoherence" to the protest, with lack of central messages and organisation, making it difficult to engage with the wider public, he said.
"Typically protests do seek to disrupt, but have a central message and attempt to gain sympathy from the public to put pressure on politicians to make change.
"The hostility to media, to politicians, to even members of the public, does not appear to be going down well either."
Attempts by the Herald to reach protest organisers have not been successful, but protesters spoken to largely indicated strong anti-vaccine and anti-mandate rhetoric.
The Herald has also viewed a vast array of concerns, including misinformation about vaccines and natural immunity, along with protests about Oranga Tamariki, Three Waters reforms and even about saving Marsden Pt near Whangārei.
Edwards said compared to Covid-19 protests of the past, this was quite united behind the anti-mandate message, although there was also a common distrust of authority.
"It is obvious a lot of people are more marginal elements of society who feel oppressed, betrayed in some way."
Given the level of violence and confrontation, Edwards said some might draw comparisons to the Springbok Tour. However, the level of division was incomparable, he said.
"During the Springbok Tour arguably the country was split 50/50, there was a real feeling of civil war. Whereas here they might have support of 2 to 3 per cent or so; the unvaccinated."
Earlier Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said while there was "a lot of emotion" at the protest, the views held were not reflective of most people.
She added it was time the protesters moved on.
Meanwhile, convoy protests in Ottawa, Canada - the genesis for these protests, have crippled the city for a fortnight and disrupted trade with the United States.
