One arrest, buses rerouted
A protest that has besieged Parliament has reached deadlock, as police officers stare down a growing illegal gathering that is promising to stay for days, and Parliament fortifies in preparation.
More protesters descended on Wellington overnight on Friday and throughout yesterday, with new arrivals in cars, trucks, and motorbikes clogging streets and setting up gazebos and tents. Aitken St, Bunny St, the Victoria University law school carpark, and the footpaths at the Lambton Quay bus terminal were filled with a lattice of vehicles.
The crowd swelled and ebbed during the day, as the rain worsened. The Destiny Church-led Voices for Freedom and Rights Coalition group arrived at Parliament’s grounds with a roar of motorbike enginesbefore noon, and set up a loudspeaker system competing with an existing music system. A mix of anti-mandate, anti-vaccine, anti-government, and conspiracy theories were shouted at a Parliament that was mostly empty aside from police officers, journalists, and Speaker Trevor Mallard.
‘‘I’m not against the vaccine at all – people should do as they wish. I’m just against the mandates,’’ said Clementine, a young woman from Queenstown who brought to the protest her pet goat Mohan, who ‘‘goes everywhere I go’’ and was wrapped in a tarpaulin to protect it from the rain.
Pea-straw was scattered across the ground to soak up the water. A Hirepool truck arrived to empty the portaloos and a nearby automechanics building, Fitzgerald Auto Point on Grant Rd in Thorndon, acted as an off-site kitchen to prepare food for the protesters.
There was no repeat of Thursday’s failed effort to push the protesters off the grounds. About 20 police officers kept a watch on the protesters, standing in the rain while they were heckled and cheered. There were no arrests on Saturday morning, and one arrest on Friday evening of a person breaching bail. Officers entered the crowd with paramedics and stretchered out a woman on Saturday afternoon, a second medical event within 24 hours.
Calling in the army to tow the vehicles is being considered,