Lindsay Mitchell
lindsaymitchell.blogspot.com
Lindsay Mitchell has been researching and commenting on welfare since 2001. Many of her articles have been published in mainstream media and she has appeared on radio, tv and before select committees discussing issues relating to welfare. Lindsay is also an artist who works under commission and exhibits at Wellington, New Zealand, galleries.
Media reports are insufficient. Since Friday the protest has swollen enormously. I took a walk around all the streets near parliament this morning. The land surrounding the old government buildings is now covered in vehicles. The thoroughfare between the High Court and Wellington University is covered. Every conceivable space is taken. People have parked in triangles and put up awnings between their utes. Up Molesworth street roadside vehicles now extend as far as Pipitea Street. People are camping in every building vestibule including the High Court by creatively tethering to pillars and posts.
In Parliament grounds around a tenth of tent city has succumbed to the gale force gusts but most are standing. Mallard’s music is blasting out but other audio speakers are competing with the likes of Chuck Berry. People are dancing despite abysmal conditions. The temperature is 12 degrees but the wind chill factor makes it much colder. I was exhaling vapour. On the lawns, there are carpets and rubber tiles on top of hay to make pathways but veer off them and you could be ankle-deep. The first aid tent is busy but not overwhelmed.
There is not one sign that people are drifting away or losing energy. If need be, people can take a break and retreat temporarily to vehicles, motor homes, converted horse trailers – whatever – and dry off and get warm again. There is food and there are toilets.
Mallard has shown he is completely divorced from reality. Does he think every protestor has a lovely warm remote home like his beckoning? Many have their homes parked at parliament – including cars. There are the marginalised, the middle class and the moderately wealthy in attendance judging by their chariots. And what was he thinking turning on the sprinklers when this heavy sustained rain was forecast anyway? ‘Kindness’ personified not. All his and police actions have done is strengthen the resolve of the occupiers and increased sympathy from the wider public.
At only 9:30 am there was plenty of activity to behold. And the mood is still as it was two days ago. Everybody is smiling, greeting each other and engendering a sense of goodwill. A young lady collecting rubbish also enjoying the humanity recalled to me that ‘she’ (gesturing toward parliament) told us not to talk to our neighbours. That’s not New Zealand, she said to me.
