Respect our House

Superintendent Corrie Parnell, Wellington District Commander, said negotiations at the Parliament...
PHOTO: MARK MITCHELL
There's an old saying which more than adequately sums up the current state of affairs at the nation’s "place" in Wellington.

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days," polymath and United States’ Founding Father Benjamin Franklin said when a friend stayed too long at his house in the 18th century.

And so it is with the ragtag mob of Covid-19 crusaders, conspiracy theorists, revolutionaries,

hangers-on, misguided souls, Donald Trump supporters, Canadian truckie backers and media- and politician-hating extremists. During the past week they have begun to smell not just metaphorically, turning the grounds of Parliament into a fetid, sludgy mudbath and a likely health hazard. It’s important we recognise not every person camped out in squalor at Parliament or who visits the occupation is an extremist.

There will be some with valid concerns about bad reactions they may previously have had to vaccines, about the right to make their own choice, about the undesirability of political mandates, and who are dealing with the loss of jobs, incomes and even homes because they have stuck to their beliefs. To most reasonable-minded people, their anger and anxiety is understandable. However, there are also some in the occupation, or operating behind the scenes, who want to execute politicians and journalists, and whose spreading of misinformation and disinformation has brainwashed the more naive with made-up statistics, spurious arguments and downright lies.

In the minds of the public, the police and the Government, such falsehoods and extreme views are going to completely overshadow any reasonable worries others there may have.

Perceptions of the protest have changed in the past week. Perhaps on the first day, when the convoy arrived and began blocking the streets around Parliament, there was an element of intrigue in what they were going to do and how many would become involved. That quickly changed to annoyance and irritation, particularly when the protesters dug in after the police made more than 100 arrests.

Rain and southerly gales courtesy of former tropical cyclone Dovi lashed the occupation over the weekend and it was hoped that, when the tents started blowing away, so, too, might the campaigners. If that desire was also the police’s, and the Government’s, then all were disappointed. Now, a week later, most New Zealanders have become sick and tired of the occupiers, the occupation’s paralysis of part of central Wellington and its effects on tens of thousands trying to go about their usual lives.

Have the police been too soft in their approach? There were signs their patience had worn thin last Thursday, when officers began dragging people out of the crowd and making arrests.

Since then, their main goal appears to be placatory, providing a visible presence in front of Parliament and keeping an eye on proceedings. Their offer of free car parks for occupiers’ vehicles — as a start to resolving the protest — seems largely to have fallen on deaf ears. Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard’s attempts to move the protesters on with the Parliamentary sprinklers and some truly awful music have not helped at all, merely encouraging them to dig in deeper. In fact the sprinklers played a major role in turning the closely cropped lawns into a quagmire. What next then? Encouraging signs of movement on opening up the streets appeared late yesterday with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster announcing the start of a major towing operation. Something needs to be done sooner rather than later to stop the more fanatical members from abusing locals and wrecking local businesses already under pressure.

We also need to remember that what ties all the disparate splinters of this protest together is selfishness. Even Kiwis who live hundreds of kilometres from Parliament consider it theirs, and enjoy a visit and wander through its grounds when in the capital. Allowing the more extreme elements to continue using it as a base for fomenting hate is defiling our national place.