Police stormed the Parliament grounds and ended the 23-day-long siege mounted by anti-vaccine mandate protesters. On Wednesday, police descended on the protesters’ campsite ripping off tents and evacuating trespassers.
Bottles were hurled and smoke billowed from the site as a pitched battle broke out, with protesters pushing against the barricades that separated them from the advancing column of police at the intersection of Bunny and Featherston streets. Police pepper sprayed the protesters who resisted their advance. In the ensuing melee, this reporter, along with other eye-witnesses, was pushed back by the uniformed phalanx.
By evening, the Parliament grounds had been cleared.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern later thanked the police for restoring democracy and order around Parliament. But not everyone endorsed that sentiment. Frances, a gym-trainer from Auckland and mother of eight, told Indian Weekender that the protest campsite was set up on land owned by a Maori Iwi and that the campers were unlawfully evicted. Neha, a young road construction worker, added: “Bro, I built this road. I am here to stand up for my rights.”
While the protesters attempted to regroup at the intersection, by end of day it was clear that the Parliament grounds had been reclaimed by State authority.
The voice of protest had been supressed for now. A day earlier, Vincent Banks, a 36-year-old former loader with Air New Zealand, had told Indian Weekender that he was protesting to restore the livelihood he lost for failing the government’s vaccination mandate.
While it stood, the cluster of tents on the Parliament lawns had been a hub of activity. “We have people from different professions here. Nurses, medics, teachers, electricians, plumbers, the whole lot,” said Rosalla, 55, who has eight children and 14 grandchildren. She recounts how a baby was delivered at the protest camp without medical support from outside. Both mother and child are coping well, she said.
While the anti-mandate protest has suffered a setback, the government needs to address the ethnic fault lines that underpinned the protest movement. It is clear that a section of the community finds itself marginalised and beleaguered by the government’s strict vaccine mandates. “We are a segregated people,” Rosalla pointed out. “We cannot go anywhere without taking the jab.”
While it lasted, the protest left the local residents in the areas surrounding Parliament jittery. Most shops and eateries downed their shutters earlier than usual. Now there is nervous expectation of a possible backlash, with evicted protesters nursing their wounded spirits and looking to relaunch their protest.
The protesters were a mixed lot. Diehard anti vaxxers rubbed shoulders with vaccine pass holders. This means the protest was nuanced. But both groups banded together to oppose what they saws as the government’s draconian approach to managing the pandemic.
But as Covid-19 cases spiked within the community, the anti-mandate protest was stigmatised by authorities as a super spreader event.
The police are prone to project the protest as a health hazard and are appealing to the public to not join the ranks of the protesters. The ideological divide becomes apparent when one mingles with protesters on the streets. “Do you really need to wear that?” a burly six-foot-something protester asked this reporter, pointing to his surgical mask.
Ardern’s victory speech following the successful police operation in clearing the Parliament grounds hinted at self-examination by the government into what led to the protests and if things could have been done differently.
Talking to the other side may be the first step in that direction.
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