Protestors outside the Taupō District Council chambers last Tuesday morning. Regional councillor Kathy White, who said she was there to find out protesters' concerns, is at the far left. photo / NZME
Protestors outside the Taupō District Council chambers last Tuesday morning. Regional councillor Kathy White, who said she was there to find out protesters' concerns, is at the far left. photo / NZME
Taupō's Waikato Regional Council representative Kathy White, who showed up at a protest last week during alert level 4 lockdown, says she was there to hear protesters' concerns.
A small group stood outside the Taupō District Council chambers on the morning of Tuesday, August 31 as part of an organisedprotest being held nationwide. None were wearing face masks.
Despite alert level 4 lockdown rules prohibiting people from different bubbles mixing together and requiring people to stay 2 metres apart at all times, the protesters mingled freely and there was a hug and two handshakes. Police later arrived and a 38-year-old woman was charged with breaching the Health Act.
The reasons for the protest were unclear, with a Facebook post about it beforehand asking whether people trusted the government, followed by a long list of apparently unconnected grievances that ranged from "Taxes - ALL OF THEM!" to 5G and "bovis".
The protests occurred around New Zealand and were organised by Karen Brewer, an Australian citizen living in Northland, who was also arrested for breaching a Covid health order.
Brewer's flyers, headlined Enough is Enough: Our Governments are Abusive, called on all 31 million people in Australasia to assemble at 9am on August 31 before marching on local and central government offices. In Taupō, six people showed up.
They were joined shortly afterward by White, who has been the Taupō representative on the Waikato Regional Council since 2013.
White says she was at the protest, despite the lockdown, for about 10 minutes to find out what the group's concerns were.
"I knew it was happening so I went along and had a chat and then wished them well because it certainly sounded like they intended to be peaceful, and I'll take along the messages and pass them on to my own council."
White said from her discussion, the group was concerned about "a gradual deterioration of human rights", including lockdowns preventing people being able to earn money and the question of whether Covid-19 vaccinations might become mandatory and people lose their jobs if they refused to have one.
White also said she agreed with what the protesters were saying about deteriorating rights and the potential for forced Covid-19 vaccinations in roles such as the military and for frontline workers.
White said she did not raise the question of the protesters breaching the lockdown with them.
"I did say to people that they should still keep their distance from each other and if they were going to protest, to make sure they stayed two metres apart.
"I do defend people's rights to protest about things, that's a really important thing in our society and when you're in lockdown it brings a whole lot of things to the surface, especially if you're not able to earn a living and pay your bills."
White said she felt that some of the protest was being driven by vaccination fears and said some people were concerned the Covid-19 vaccine had not been fully tested or there were effects they were worried about.
The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine being administered in New Zealand was tested on 44,000 subjects and Bloomberg's Covid-19 vaccine tracker shows 5.48 billion shots of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered globally.
When asked for her stance on Covid-19 vaccination and whether she intended to be vaccinated, White declined to answer but said everybody should look at the merits of every vaccination and what the effects were.
"I don't believe what our Prime Minister said, that you should only look to them for information, I think people should do their own research.
"Having said that, if people have done their own risk assessment and they are happy to have the vaccination, that's absolutely fine."
The person arrested at the protest did not appear in court due to alert level 3 but has been written to by police and is expected in court later this month.
