HR
Volunteer Reporter
The BFD
Sunday I went to the protest at Parliament.
My reasons for going were numerous. None of these vaccine or mask mandates have sat well with me. I am vaccinated, mainly for business purposes, but to say I was unwilling to get the jabs is an understatement.
I wanted to see for myself what was going on. I have a deep distrust of the mainstream media and I felt strongly that what they were putting out was not accurate and followed a narrative that the government wanted them to portray. So I took my youngest lad (nearly 15) and picked up a mate of mine who has opinions along similar lines to my own.
The weather has been appalling. They say you “can’t beat Wellington on a good day”, which is true, but the opposite also applies; Wellington is one of the worst places on earth to be when the weather is bad. Today was one of the worst in memory, with howling winds and rain that seemed to come at you from all angles. Friday and Saturday were crap also.
So the first surprise was that the roads aren’t all blocked off like the media reported. A small part of Lambton Quay directly outside Parliament was blocked. A part of Molesworth Street was blocked off, again directly outside Parliament. Aitken Street and Kate Sheppard Place were blocked. Stout Street had cars and campers along each side but we had no issue driving through. You could drive right up to Parliament on Bowen Street or Whitmore Street with no issue. Murphy Street was also unobstructed.
The protesters had thought about this and in my mind have limited the blockages to the minimum and have not tried to cause any undue inconvenience. Parking was easy and it only took us a 5-minute walk from Murphy Street to get to Parliament.
We had read that retailers near Parliament in Wellington were suffering because of the protesters. I call total bullshit on that.
As we walked along Molesworth Street we bumped into a hard case chap in his 60s and started chatting to him. “Came in to see what was going on with this protest mate, but now I can’t find my fucking car! Forgot where I parked it! Such is life, I’ll find it at some stage!” We had a good laugh with him and wished him luck. He was a total good bugger and while completely soaked through he was totally unfazed by his predicament.
A friend of mine donated a large box of jackets and tee shirts, many were brand new and still with the tags, as the protest organisers had asked for dry clothes. We asked for and got directions to the clothing drop off in Kate Sheppard Place where there was a dockway covered with a tarpaulin. There were dozens and dozens of people outside, and a chap doing some sort of live feed on his phone. “So, you can see, Whanau, lots of people here, donating stuff. It is too much, bro!” I gave him a smile as we moved past and inside the dockway.
Inside were many more people, either doing what we were and dropping off dry clothes or taking off wet clothes and exchanging them. We handed the box over to one of the organisers who thanked us profusely. My buddy had gone to the effort of finding and buying plastic ponchos which were in high demand in the rain.
I had purchased a large tin of coffee, tea bags, sugar, bottles of milk, boxes of snack bars and boxes of cup o’ soup to donate to the cause. We asked who we should drop the stuff to and were directed to an area on Molesworth Street where there was a row of gazebos and tents all joined together. We found our way to a van with a large tent over the top and a lovely Maori lady who was on organisation duties. “Oh, thank you all so much! This is just what we need! Thank you, thank you! Please go and get some hot food from outside!” We thanked her for her efforts and went back outside.
Outside were more tents and gazebos where the food service area was. There were hundreds of people milling around under the cover, and many more preparing food. There were barbeques with sausages and meat patties, roast vegetables, eggs, sandwiches, snacks, even pinwheel scones! We felt a bit awkward having food but were encouraged by some of the other people there so we ended up enjoying a sausage in bread with sauce and chatting to some other people there. There was coffee and tea available and cold drinks too.
Walking around the grounds was interesting. The grass area was absolutely soaked and muddy and we could see where drains had been dug to channel water away. Trevor Mallard may have thought he was being clever, but the amount of rain Wellington has had would have meant his mean spirited gesture made very little difference at all. Same with his other clever idea, that of playing terrible music through speakers to deter the crowd. The sad thing for old Trev was that the speakers were crap and simply weren’t loud enough to annoy anyone apart from the poor cops a few metres from the speakers. One wit in the crowd suggested that the Celine Dion Titanic theme played through the speakers was actually a rendition on a school recorder by Trevor himself. That got a number of laughs and Trev took some more grief for being a rubbish musician as well as a nasty, spiteful politician.
If you simply walked around the grounds and looked at the lawn area, as is generally shown on the news, you would be thinking that there weren’t too many people in attendance. The reality was that the majority of people are actually off the grass on the roads and paths inside the grounds of parliament, or on the roads just outside. This is where the real numbers are, but you never get shown that on the television.
The feeling in the crowd was really happy and positive. I never felt uneasy or worried about being there and it was obvious that I was not the only one as I saw ordinary families, mum and dad and kids, walking around enjoying the atmosphere. Everyone I spoke to was positive, cheerful and seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was a constant stream of people like us delivering donated goods to the food tent. Without fail, people were going out of their way to be polite and accommodating.
This is the issue I see for the government: they think this protest is just a bunch of fringe lunatic white supremacist no-hopers wearing MAGA hats. The reality is far different. The crowd was by and large ordinary Kiwis who have had enough of being told what to do. There were no violence, or threats of violence; quite the opposite. I saw people who were perfect strangers cooperating and helping each other out despite the awful weather.
The government have misread this. Sending in the police will be a huge mistake, not from a violence perspective, but from the actual support these people and this protest have. This isn’t going away quickly no matter how much Barry Manilow gets played through crappy speakers.
They are laughing at you, Trevor Mallard. They are laughing at your Labour Government.
I’m going back on Tuesday with more supplies.
