New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has slammed Covid protesters for throwing human faeces at police officers.
Eight people involved in Monday’s protests were arrested for disorderly behaviour and obstruction as human waste was thrown over some police officers in retaliation for them placing concrete barricades on city centre streets.
“No one should have to face having human waste thrown at them when they are just trying to keep people safe,” she said.
“The protesters have made their point, it is time for them to leave.”
Inspired by truckers’ demonstrations in Canada, thousands of protesters have blocked streets near the parliament in the capital Wellington for two weeks with trucks, cars and motorcycles, piling pressure on the government to scrap vaccine mandates.
The demonstrations began as a stand against the vaccine mandates but have since spread to become a wider movement against Ms Ardern and her government.
Fireworks on Bowen Street pic.twitter.com/x2LtvqWwJX
— Nick James (@nickpgjames) February 21, 2022
As protesters occupying the parliament clashed with police, Ms Ardern said New Zealand would lift Covid-19 vaccine mandates and social distancing measures after the Omicron peak has passed.
She refused to set a hard date, but said there would be a narrowing of vaccine requirements after Omicron reaches a peak, which is expected in mid to late March.
“We all want to go back to the way life was. And we will, I suspect sooner than you think,” Ms Ardern said at a weekly news conference.
“But when that happens, it will be because easing restrictions won’t compromise the lives of thousands of people – not because you demanded it,” she said, addressing protestors.
New Zealand has reported about 16,000 cases of Covid-19 and 53 deaths since the pandemic began, relatively low by global standards, but an Omicron-fuelled outbreak has pushed the current seven-day average of new infections to more than 1,600 cases daily.
About 94 per cent of eligible people are vaccinated, with shots mandatory for some staff in front-line jobs.
The parliament stand off is testing Ms Ardern, who garnered plaudits for keeping the country virtually virus-free over the last two years but is facing criticism for continuing strict restrictions and delaying border reopening plans.
“What we are seeing outside parliament, and the reaction to it, is the culmination of underlying issues that have been rumbling along in our communities for some time,” main opposition National Party leader Christopher Luxon said today, calling for vaccine mandates to be phased out and borders reopened.
“It’s driven by Covid and vaccine mandates, yes, but the frustrations shared by many Kiwis are also driven by a Government that seems to be stalling,” he said.
