A constitutional law expert says anti-Covid-19 vaccine mandate protesters will have to be told by authorites at "some point" that the "limit of protest has been reached".
Professor Andrew Geddis' comments come as the protest enters its second week despite the group being trespassed from Parliament grounds in Wellington.
More than 100 vehicles are parked in and around the grounds as protesters camped out overnight but few protesters have taken up the offer of free parking at Sky Stadium after police asked them to move the vehicles.
Geddis from Otago University, told Breakfast the occupiers outside Parliament have the right to protest as per the Bill of Rights Act – particularly around the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association.
But he raised concerns around the extent to which the protesters' rights were impacting the rights of those who live and work nearby.
“As we’ve seen in this Wellington situation, there’s a large number of people in the environment of Parliament who are trying to live their lives who aren’t able to do so because of the way that the protests have been carried out.”
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He said once it becomes a “contest of rights” between those of the occupiers to protest and those of the residents, you “have to come to one side or the other”.
“Certainly, the protesters have points they want to make – two years living under Covid, the way in which the mandates have affected everybody – that is something that needs to be expressed and there has to be space for that to happen," Geddis said.
“The question is whether it should empower a small group of people to, for over a week, take over the centre of the Capital and force everyone around them to live in a way that they want to becomes another question, because if it’s meant to be a democratic statement of what the people want, they haven’t asked the people living around Parliament ‘is this what you want?’ They haven’t asked people in that environment, ‘Are you happy with us taking over your lives in this way?’
“At some point, the answer has to be, ‘No, you’re not allowed to do this anymore. The limit of protest has been reached.”
Geddis said the occupation of Parliament grounds "could carry on for a little bit longer and would annoy the Parliamentarians, it would annoy [House Speaker] Trevor Mallard but if it was just happening at Parliament grounds, for the wider society, it wouldn’t have that much impact".
“The big problem for Wellingtonians is the cars in the streets and the spill out behaviour of some of the protesters towards residents.”
Their vehicles have been blocking roads and access to businesses.
He said while the removal of the protesters’ cars must be prioritised, it "comes down to practicalities – how do you effectively move over 100 cars when going in to try to do so may spark the protesters to take action to try to stop it and can you physically do that in a way that’s not going to have much worse consequences?"
“The law can say one thing, but actually making the law work is the much more difficult problem.”
Former police crisis negotiator Lance Burdett said some of the tactics used to deter the protesters are “quite frankly, inappropriate”.
“When you use tactics in a first instance that are inappropriate, people dig in – that’s what’s happened. All of a sudden, there’s a groundswell so there’s people coming into that place now to support them because they’ve seen what’s happened turning on sprinklers, playing music – that’s 20 years ago, that’s done and dusted, we should never do anything like that.
“Next think, they’ll be turning off the power, making it cold and trying to do all sorts of other things which just solidifies people and makes them bond together."
Anti-Covid-19 vaccine mandate protesters were out in force for a sixth day.
He said the Government should instead “get in with them, speak with them”, and to open up to potential mediation between a politician and the leader of the group.
However, there are concerns around the protests being leaderless and without a coherent message, as well as its violent rhetoric around lynching.
Burdett dismissed the concerns, saying, "In any group, there’s outliers – there’s always one or two".
"That’s what the media’s been focusing on but I recognise people in that crowd; they represent New Zealand, they’ve had enough.”
Geddis, however, questioned Burdett’s identification of the protest group as representing New Zealand.
“I’m not sure that’s true. I think there is some concern around how long the mandate may exist and so on, but that’s not to say that the vast majority of New Zealanders want it dropped now.
“The protest has put out they want all Covid restrictions lifted and I’m sorry, but I’m not there and I think the majority of New Zealanders don’t want that either.”
Burdett said while “what we’re focusing on is what we’re seeing in the media”, he questioned whether “anyone has gone and spoken to the people in the middle, the people that are the unseen in the middle, those protest groups”.
Geddis, however, was sceptical of the method and its potentially dangerous implications around getting messages across through force.
“I guess the question then is, are you then sending a message that if you turn up to Parliament and gridlock all of central Wellington, Government will come and listen to whatever you have to say?”
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