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Remember when the Freedom Convoy first arrived in Wellington and the protesters took up residence in the grounds of parliament? There was universal condemnation. Politicians refused to talk to them, the public claimed they were being abused by them and the media roundly insulted and berated them.
While New Zealand has seen many protests in its time – not least the Ihumatao occupation which ran for months and in which politicians intervened when they should have left well alone – this one was ‘different’. It apparently felt ‘imported’ (like protests about Donald Trump becoming president and Black Lives Matter), and we were told by our esteemed prime minister that “this is not the way we do protests.”
It is exactly the way we do protests. Occupy and ask to be heard. It worked at Ihumatao. What is so different here?
But as the protest is coming to the end of its second week, attitudes in the media are changing.
On Monday’s AM Show, Ryan Bridge quizzed Jacinda about when she would end mandates and also asked whether or not she condoned Michael Wood’s “Rivers of Filth” speech. He asked her several times. Needless to say, he did not get an answer.
While Bridge declared support for the police, Jacinda reminded him that she was the daughter of a former policeman, and said that she felt like “part of the police family”. Does that mean she is condoning the terrible violence inflicted on peaceful protesters by the police? I know a couple in their 70s who were roughed up and pepper-sprayed. Does Jacinda agree with those kinds of actions? Yes, it sounds to me as if she does.
Bridge seemed to be asking the prime minister to give consideration to talking to the protesters and also to ending the mandates… neither of which she is prepared to do. Jacinda just dug in deeper than ever, talked over him, refused to answer questions and just waffled on. You could definitely see that Bridge was a little frustrated with her at times.
Then there was this article in Stuff over the weekend:
The Prime Ministerial complaint appears to be that anti-mandate protests are acceptable, but anti-vaccine protesters were beyond some imaginary red line and thus were not to be tolerated.
But – and I realise this will come to as a shock to a few in the Beehive and those who pander to them – our political elites do not get to define the boundaries of legitimate dissent.
Even more remarkable was Ardern’s statement: “…it’s not the way we protest in New Zealand.”
Well, prime minister, if you look out of your ninth floor window, you will see that is exactly how some people express their defiance in New Zealand.
It is how the protest at Ihumatao was conducted, successfully, as you may recall. It is how the local Maori made their demands known at Moutoa Gardens in Wanganui for almost three months. The occupation of Bastion Point lasted for 18 months.
What the prime minister meant, I suspect, is it isn’t how she and her cohort of performance revolutionaries choose to conduct themselves, where the object was to get the Instagram photo and move on somewhere comfortable for a soy latte and vegan muffin. Getting mud on your designer clothing was to be avoided and being arrested was definitely not on the cards. Thank you very much.
Stuff
Would you ever have expected such views from Stuff – one of Jacinda’s cohorts of bought-and-paid-for media outlets?
How about this from The Herald?
For a start, they should immediately stop demonising the crowd. Jacinda Ardern has written the protest off as “imported”, Trevor Mallard has labelled them “the biggest collection of ferals that I’ve seen”, and Michael Wood described the crowd as a “river of filth”.
People aren’t swallowing those lines so easily now. Too many counter-narratives are emerging. We’re hearing too many stories of former cops, midwives and defence force staff joining the protest out of frustration. Those people are not ferals. They’re ordinary, front-line, valuable Kiwis. Too many double-jabbed New Zealanders are voicing support or showing up. Too many local businesses are offering food and assistance out of sheer frustration at two years of government restrictions.
If the Government continues to punch down on those Kiwis by calling them names, they run the risk of becoming the bully. They also make it much harder to open any dialogue with them. It’ll be hard to justify sitting down to talk to people you’ve written off as unworthy.
The Government does not have any leverage here to make demands. The only people with leverage are the protestors.
The Herald
We all know the government has been wrong from the very first day of the protest. Jacinda tries to sound kind by expressing concern for the children amongst the protesters, but Trevor Mallard turned on the sprinklers and soaked them all night long. They do not get to take the moral high ground here. Suddenly, the media is seeing through all of it.
I suspect this has come as a huge shock to Jacinda. Every time she faces the media these days, she looks extremely wary. She looks like a cornered animal. She has rehearsed her answers reasonably well and she can talk over people like there is no tomorrow, but the friendly banter is no longer there. She constantly looks angry. People are not listening to her. The media is asking questions and looking for answers… and the answers are simply not coming. They have never treated her in this way before, and she doesn’t know how to deal with it.
I do wonder if all the criticism aimed at journalists, particularly during the protests, have finally hit a nerve. They never realised how obvious their bias was. Now they find themselves staring down the barrel of destruction and maybe – just maybe – they are beginning to realise that they have a responsibility to the people of this country. Slowly, a few of them are waking up.
If Jacinda has lost the media, then she has lost everything. The protesters have won. Every media outlet is asking about bringing about the end of mandates. She doesn’t want to do it. But the pressure is on.
Never mind Jacinda. You still have Hillary Barry. The old crone from Seven Sharp hasn’t deserted you. But everyone else has. Time to go and talk to the protesters. The only party refusing to sit down and talk, to solve the situation, is the government. This is not right… and the media is starting to see it.
