Another day at the Wellington protest

Day 3

It was much quieter today. The tension between the protesters and police has been de-escalated and the Police have simply been maintaining their routine guard positions all day.

About every hour or so, a group of officers come out and relieve them. It’s all done to a strict routine, and it’s rather like watching soldiers on parade, as they march about in a very serious fashion.

Meanwhile, the local school children, etc, just walk casually thru the protest area, which speaks volumes about the goodwill of the protestors in general.

There were some very good speakers on the main stage today, and the occassional not quite so good one.

It seems the vibe of the protest seems to change a bit every day (no two days are the same), which is probably due to it’s dynamic nature.

I did spend a bit of time in the ‘Blues lounge’ and listened to some really good musicians. They were all strangers to begin with, but they played together well, like they had played together as a band for years.

That sort of encapsulates this protest. We are all strangers here and we are all different, but we have a common purpose and we all relate to each other very well. We have all suffered somehow, and we are all here for a reason, and what we believe in.

Thats it for now, I’ve volunteered to help out tomorrow and I suspect it will be a long, but rewarding day.

Ex Act Party Leader Rodney Hide takes David Seymour to task for his Shameful Stance on the Anti- Covid 19 Mandates Freedom Protests.

Read full statement here CLASSIC! Hide pouring well deserved scorn on PATHETIC David Seymour and his utter failure to defend the rights of New Zealanders reeling under the onslaught of Far Left PM Ardern’s Socialist tyrannical Covid measures! Hide in particular leads by example saying he personally supports the Anti Mandate Protests currently being staged…
Ex Act Party Leader Rodney Hide takes David Seymour to task for his Shameful Stance on the Anti- Covid 19 Mandates Freedom Protests.

A statement from the Wellington Protesters

“Today marks one week since tens of thousands of New Zealanders from all walks of life, ages and ethnicities came together in a peaceful protest.
They travelled from all over the country and have been supported in many ways by hundreds of thousands of Kiwis.
They are united in condemning the government’s flagrant breach of human rights, deliberate divisiveness, and discrimination. The constant law changes are inconsistent with the government’s duties to the New Zealanders it was elected to represent.

The protest is a result of immense frustration and concern. People are outraged by the conduct of the government and its lack of respect, dismissive attitude and unwillingness to engage.
The position of protestors and the government have become entrenched, but this protest can end.

This communication summarises the views of the majority of groups present at Parliament today:
Convoy 2022 NZ
Freedom Alliance
New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science
Outdoors & Freedom Movement
The Freedom and Rights Coalition
Voices for Freedom.

We have come together and we are in agreement that the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act and all the orders and mandates made under that legislation must be revoked immediately.
The government needs to lift the unnecessary mandates, and an urgent meeting has been requested with senior cabinet ministers to open dialogue.

The infection fatality rate of Omicron is lower than the seasonal flu. Before the global pandemic, it was considered ‘normal’ for 500-700 New Zealanders to die from the seasonal flu each year. On average, 100 Kiwis die each day from various causes. There needs to be perspective.
The Traffic Light system, the ‘no jab, no job’ laws and other mandates are discriminatory, unjustified and a breach of fundamental human rights.

Not one Government representative has engaged in dialogue with the peaceful protesters. Their response of soaking the ground with high-pressure irrigation, bright lights, blasting music and ads at the gathering is infantile and highly unhelpful to bringing about a resolution. We are concerned that unless these tactics cease, they could cause significant damage to any trust held by the protesters that their elected representatives are interested in listening to them.

In addition, the behaviour of the Police last Thursday was unconscionable. New Zealanders, our friends, and the media worldwide watched in horror the deplorable and unlawful police conduct towards peaceful protestors, including women and children.

We reiterate that our request is that the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act and all the orders and mandates made under that legislation be revoked immediately in accordance with the principles of justice, democracy, respect for human rights, equality, non-discrimination, good governance and good faith.

Until the end of the mandates, participants are determined to maintain their presence.
The media is grossly misrepresenting the situation. The protestors are friendly, peaceful, hardworking New Zealanders who are pro-medical freedom.

Government and media must stop their deliberate and sustained misinformation campaign.”

That Wellington anti-mandate protest

It’s been going for a whole week now, and the police are getting frustrated because they can’t find a leader to talk to ‘negotiate’ with. This is somewhat disingenous of them as they have developed a habit of arresting leaders to nobble any protest.

There no real leaders (at least no visible ones) and it’s run by a consortium of groups who want broadly the same thing -end the mandates and restrictions.

An attempt to dislodge them last week failed mostly because they couldn’t get the protesters to get violent, which meant they ended up looking like the bad guys when the police themselves used excessive violence. In this day & age of phones & camera’s, it wasn’t a good look.

(A large segment of the crowd are from a Christian church not known for violence)

The protest has grown since then to about 5000. To put that in perspective, New Zealand only has about 2600 frontline police officers.

The Government has the media in their pocket and the official narrative is that they are neo’nazi’s, white supremiscist’s etc. all of these narratives instantly fall apart if you actually look at a photo of the crowd.

The protesters themselves are in good spirits thou and it’s become a bit of a music festival.

We have have routinely supporting them from afar in another city with pop up protests

The reaction from the passing traffic is typically 30% approval, 65% neutral, and 5% against, which tells me, we have a lot of support.

There are always rumours afoot thou, of whats likely to happen next.

In that regard we are fortunate that NZ trails behind other countries and we simply need to look at Canada or Victoria in Australia to see what happened there.

Thats it for now, I’m going down there next week to help out.

Cheers