Ardern tells ‘freedom convoy’ to leave
SYDNEY • New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has come under fire for dismissing the concerns of the Freedom Convoy that has set up camp in Wellington to protest against strict vaccine mandates.
With thousands occupying the lawns of Parliament House over the past week, the prime minister said she had never seen anything like it in her homeland.
“Some of our greatest movements have been born of people movements, many of which have entered the forecourt of parliament — but what I’m seeing, it is some kind of imported form of protest,” she said.
“I’ve seen Trump flags on the forecourt, I’ve seen Canadian flags on the forecourt,” she said. “I think we all want them to leave.”
The government’s strict measures, while largely supported at the beginning of the pandemic, have since sparked a backlash against Ardern’s administration.
A vaccine pass is required to enter most shops and restaurants and it is compulsory for certain workers to get inoculated against COVID including teachers, doctors, nurses, police and military personnel.
John Minto, a leading activist, said the majority of protesters are “good people.” He added: “I think the government has handled this badly and that’s something that didn’t need to happen.
“The key thing is people need to feel they have been listened to, and I don’t think they have.”
Lance Burdett, another activist, told Newstalk ZB radio station: “People are angry and it’s due to frustration. We’ve been held back for two years now.”
A hospitality boss told the New Zealand Herald: “What I’m seeing here at the moment is (the government) in their wisdom they refuse to talk to them, they refuse to even acknowledge them. I don’t support the views that they have but I think we all have freedom to express our views, and by sending the police in with batons and threatening that the army is coming in, things like that only escalates it.”
Protesters in the grounds of parliament were sprayed with water and subjected to Barry Manilow songs on a loop over the weekend but vowed to stay until the government ends vaccine mandates.
New Zealand’s tough restrictions have resulted in some of the world’s lowest COVID numbers and just 53 virus deaths among its population of five million but international border curbs have left thousands of Kiwis stranded across the globe.
A recent opinion poll showed Ardern’s popularity had fallen to its lowest level since she was elected in 2017.
Criticism mainly centred on her response to the pandemic and its effect on the economy.
Monday, police in Brussels were forced to impose traffic restrictions to thwart a “freedom convoy” of 800 demonstrators planning to arrive from Lille and the Netherlands.