November 10 2021
As the Delta outbreak's total case numbers approached 4000, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made her first visit to Auckland after three months into lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will make a long-awaited visit to Auckland the day after a massive protest at Parliament against her Government's Covid-19 response.
Thousands of people (estimates ranged from 2000 to 10,000) attended the Freedoms and Rights Coalition protest on Tuesday, which started out in Civic Square before marching through central Wellington, led by dozens of motorbike riders.
Those gathered included a broad cross-section of society; young and old, and from many different ethnic and social backgrounds.
They had come from all across the country - a group of about 100 spoken to had travelled together in buses from in and around Whakatāne - and the demands and grievances were just as varied, though most were opposed generally to the Government's use of lockdowns and vaccine mandates, what they said was an "attack" on their freedom.
Ardern said she did not have a message for the anti-vaccination protesters outside Parliament, but she did have a message for the vaccinated: "Thank you."
"So, actually, my message would be for them. It would be to say thank you. Thank you for being vaccinated, and doing what it takes to look after one another."
Police watching over Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters gathered at Parliament, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Parliament was a place people could freely protest, and there had been large protests in the past, she said,
"That does not mean what we saw here today was in any way representative of the vast majority of New Zealanders."
Indeed 89 per cent of the eligible population has now received one dose of the vaccine, and 79 per cent are now fully vaccinated.
Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall tweeted: "we will vaccinate more people today - in just one day- than turned up to that protest."
There were more than 21,000 people vaccinated on Monday.
National leader Judith Collins said today that the protest was "unusual yesterday" and the most security she had ever seen at Parliament.
She said it was a peaceful protest and what was more concerning was burnouts outside by gangs.
About 12,000 people worked at Parliament and they needed to be able to come and go.
On those isolating in garden sheds, cars or emergency accommodation, Collins said Ardern had told her no one was being forced to do that.
"I don't think putting people with Covid into a garden shed and saying they need to stay in emergency accommodation with lots of other people in emergency accommodation is simply unacceptable."
Collins told The AM Show that people coming in from overseas, double-jabbed with a negative Covid test should be allowed to bypass MIQ and those rooms should instead be given to people self-isolating at homes in cars and garden sheds.
About 1000 people in the community had Covid and she would expect they would look at their accommodation and how they can live without infecting other or getting better.
Protest signs ranged from anti-vaccine and anti-media to "Trump 2020" and far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, alongside tino rangatiratanga and United Tribes flags.
There were constant chants of "freedom now" and "you serve us" - directed at Parliament - from the thousands of protesters gathered, alongside more random insults directed at media gathered to cover the event.
Protesters marching along Lambton Quay before gathering at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Ardern was also the subject of many of the protesters' placards and criticisms, and she said she was aware of anger at her because she ran her own social media.
Today, retail reopens in Auckland and Ardern will make her first visit to the city since the lockdowns began in mid-August.
She said she intended to meet with business representatives and those working in the health workforce and vaccination centres.
While the level 3 rules restricted what she could do, she had put in a request to be able to talk to workers at workplaces she was visiting as well.
Many protest signs targeted the Prime Minister, this one referencing a derogatory meme for President Joe Biden from the United States. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Ardern said it was too early to say whether vaccine mandates would have to be a long-term part of New Zealand's response, but defended the decision to use them "in the here and now".
She said those sectors with mandates on them were those with higher risks to them.
Schoolteachers and staff are included in the mandates, their deadline approaching on November 15, and some of those protesting at Parliament were from schools.
A teacher from Whakatāne, who refused to give her name, said she, along with many others, was prepared to give up her career of over 20 years rather than get vaccinated. Photo / Michael Neilson
One of the protesters, a special needs teacher of over 20 years' experience from Whakatāne, said she was prepared to leave her job, as were many others, rather than get vaccinated.
The woman, who refused to give her name, said she was concerned about Covid-19 but didn't trust the vaccine, nor the Government.
Murray Atkins had travelled from Gisborne with his partner for the protest. Both were opposed to the vaccine and would lose their jobs consequently.
Rewi Hare of Destiny Church addressed the crowd, saying people have gathered from "top of the North Island to the bottom of the South".
Protesters performing a haka as the protest finished. Photo / Mark Mitchell
To loud cheers he praised the "brave" Destiny Church leader Bishop Brian Tamaki for "standing up to the Government".
No politicians were seen at the protest, nor did any speak publicly. There was a heavy police presence throughout, and aside from some protesters pushing onto the initially closed-off forecourt, no major aggression nor incidents.
A police spokesman said there were no arrests, but there could be follow-up action.
Act Party leader David Seymour said the Government had antagonised people such as some of the protesters outside by issuing vaccine mandates.
There was a broad cross-section society at the protest. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seymour said he hoped as many people as possible got vaccinated but people should still be given choices.
"I don't fear those people. I fear for them," Seymour said when asked about the crowds outside.
National Party leader Judith Collins said although some protesters appeared to have placards with violent messages, the vast majority of those gathered outside were peaceful.
The protest came as 125 Covid-19 cases were reported in the community on Tuesday, including 117 in Auckland, six in Northland and two in Waikato.
There are 79 people in hospital, including nine people in intensive care or high dependency units - up from seven on Monday.
