The global movement fuelling anti-mandate protests
A dispatch from the front steps of parliament where a message of freedom is clashing with threats of lynching
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, February 10, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: A worrying drop in testing; the rapid test saga; a blue penguin cam to delight your day; but first, a look at parliament’s protest.
Police arrest three as a group of protesters try to push through to parliament. (Justin Giovannetti/The Spinoff)
A mixture of peace and anger outside parliament. A Canadian journalist reporting on the ongoing protests in that country shared a picture earlier this week that perfectly captures the contradiction built into ongoing anti-mandate occupations around the world. The picture showed a professionally-made sign that read “Facts over fear”. However, a protester had then taken a marker and written “Stop raping kids!” on the sign, echoing the far-right QAnon conspiracy. So it was yesterday in Wellington that a protester holding a “Love not fear” sign was yelling death threats at a One News reporter. Speakers called for “dignity and peace,” while there were nooses in the crowd and someone had scrawled “Hang ‘em high” at the base of parliament’s steps.
The protest has brought together a number of groups that defy definition. With a mixture of slick “freedom” branding and hateful signs promising executions, there’s no single story to be told about the convoy that arrived at parliament on Tuesday. The contradictions were bewildering yesterday as I watched from parliament as the crowd seemed uncertain about what to do next, beyond waiting for the government to cave to their ill-defined demands. As Toby Manhire reports for The Spinoff, some of those fractures were also becoming clear to the protesters themselves. Rival leaders are clashing over the approach and message coming through loudspeakers. Some demonstrators are genuinely driven by opposition to vaccine mandates, while others are more concerned with far-right American conspiracy theories. According to Stuff, MPs are united in opposition to what’s happening outside the seat of New Zealand’s democracy.
The Wellington protest reflects a global movement. Dylan Reeve writes about the internet for The Spinoff and spends a significant amount of time monitoring far-right groups and conspiracies online. He’s written about the international protest movement that led to the demonstration outside parliament this week. One thing that’s clear from his reporting is that the New Zealand protest has broken from the Canadian model it is trying to emulate in one big way. The Canadian protest started in opposition to a specific border mandate and seems to be dominated by truckers and people in work vehicles. New Zealand’s isn’t. I asked Reeve to help explain what’s going on.
What is this all about? “That really depends on whether we look at what the organisers say outwardly or what the participants themselves say. If we look at the former, then the convoy was a protest to end pretty much all Covid restrictions.
"But many of the participants themselves adorned vehicles and carried signs putting forward more extreme ideas, including anti-vax conspiracies, QAnon-inspired ideas and demands for the arrests of politicians, officials, scientists and the media.”
Who are the people at this protest? “Again we're faced with the question of what they say versus what we see. The convoy was often branded as a ‘truckers convoy’ which is an idea imported from Canada where it was probably more accurate. In reality they are largely the same people we've seen at literally every protest about Covid, with incredibly wide-ranging views and beliefs. I think many of the people who may have joined the protest initially were perhaps on the less-extreme end of the spectrum, but after a couple of days, it looks like only the more deeply involved have remained.”
How much of this is driven from overseas? “There has been some really interesting reporting all through the pandemic about the ways in which well-resourced political groups have exploited and encouraged oppositional movements. Most recently it seems like there's some very questionable people and groups propping up in the Canadian convoy. I haven't really seen much to suggest that stuff happens directly here, but the globalised nature of the protest movement means that even without direct involvement in New Zealand, what happens overseas quickly filters into and energises local groups.”
Where do we go from here? “For the convoy? Probably nowhere. It's likely the protest will eventually peter out. It seems incredibly unlikely they will achieve any of their stated objectives.
“But in a broader sense this is a question I've been wondering about since early in the pandemic. I've long believed people fall into conspiracy theory rabbit holes often through innocuous inquiry, perhaps a little uncomfortable about vaccines, they find a site espousing anti-vax ideas and soon trust that site for other information too. Once you're in those spheres there’s no end of new ‘knowledge’ being shared, and it's easy to become quite radicalised about pretty extreme conspiracy theories.
“I suspect that's been happening on an even bigger scale during Covid, especially since the vaccines arrived. Now there's a sizeable group who are buying into bigger conspiracy ideas beyond Covid. So even if the pandemic somehow fades away, they're not necessarily going back to who they were before.”
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Labour hasn’t yet decided who to back in Auckland’s race for mayor. Phil Goff is expected to announce later this month that he won’t be seeking another term, opening up a race that has no clear front-runner. As the NZ Herald’s Bernard Orsman (paywalled) writes, there’s a behind-the-scenes contest between councillors Efeso Collins and Richard Hills for the party’s backing. Collins has called for a democratic process to select Labour’s next candidate, while the party hasn’t wanted to confirm how it'll choose to back someone.
Fears mount that some farmers might not get tested for Covid. The Otago Daily Times has spoken with farmers in Southland who say farm staff have been told not to be tested if they show symptoms. They are concerned that isolation rules would take them off work for a week or more, which would have a significant impact on operations. The agriculture minister has said farmers who operate in a bubble and don’t have contact with other people might be able to keep working despite contracting Covid-19.
Across the economy there are growing concerns that testing rates over the past week, which are lower than they had been during the delta outbreak, reflect fatigue with the virus and worries about long self-isolation. The government is expected to unveil today which workers have critical status and will have access to rapid tests that allow them to quickly return to work.
The Spinoff’s Covid data tracker has the latest figures.
Our friends at Te Taumata Toi-a-Iwi have launched their quarterly State of the Arts survey, as they continue to advocate for a sector facing huge uncertainty It’s an anonymous platform to share ideas for tangible support that will be communicated to decision makers. If you work in the arts, culture and creative sector, take the survey here.
A possible end to the ongoing saga of where the rapid tests went. After days of conflicting statements about whether the government seized rapid tests destined for private businesses, Stuff reports that one manufacturer has said the whole thing didn’t happen. In a statement, Roche said it only delivered stock to the government because it placed its orders first. The ministry of health had indicated earlier this week that it had seized tests, only for the Covid-19 minister to say the ministry was wrong. A number of businesses are adamant that they received letters from suppliers that their tests were being redirected to government.
Call for Transmission Gully inquiry as builders start ripping up road surface. Despite no traffic ever driving on it, kilometres of the new highway into the capital is now being resurfaced to deal with major flaws in its initial construction. The Dominion Post reports that the Chambers of Commerce of Kāpiti, Porirua, and Wellington are now demanding a public investigation after two years of delays and a lack of information about when the highway will finally open. The business leaders say they are tired of an ongoing blame game on the project and just want a clear answer.
A new report from our partners at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, He huringa āhuarangi, he huringa ao: a changing climate, a changing world, shows how climate change is affecting Māori communities. Produced with Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, the report brings together the existing analysis on the risks that face New Zealand through a whakaaro Māori lens, creating an important tool for whānau, iwi and hapū as they prepare and respond to climate change. It considers its effects on everything from Māori business to the preservation of tikanga Māori in the face of global warming. Read the full coverage of the report now on The Spinoff.
A look to the future and one of the biggest challenges facing New Zealand. Much of this country’s prosperity depends on agricultural exports and that’s under threat, due to changing taste and emerging technologies. The selection of oat milk at the local Four Square is just a taste of what’s to come. It’s possible that a lab-grown milk substitute cheaper than the version from cows will be ready within a decade. The real economic horror story is what happens when milk and meat is no longer profitable to grow on New Zealand pasture, but in labs close to the people who eat it, the NZ Herald (paywalled) reports.
Once a nuisance to humans, Ōamaru’s blue penguins are now the main attraction. RNZ has a story on how the North Otago town has turned fully towards tourism and conservation revolving around the small penguins. The local colony’s population has soared and is now near 250, up from 30 breedings pairs when things started three decades ago. Domestic tourism is helping keep the operation afloat in the age of Covid, but if you can’t visit, a live nest cam keeping watch on chicks is the next best thing.
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Right now on The Spinoff: Shanti Mathias explores the knotty social dynamics of online knitting communities. Reweti Kohere reports on the New Zealand business harnessing the power of packaging. Naomii Seah looks at concerns that Asians aren’t as healthy as you think. Margaret Stanley & Pepper Raccoon illustrate Aotearoa’s weed problem. Sela Jane Hopgood speaks with a social media-friendly Pasifika MP who is doing it for her community.
The Black Caps T20 series against Australia has been cancelled. A lack of MIQ spots for the Australians is being blamed for the abandonment of a series of games scheduled for next month in Napier, RNZ reports. However there’s still more cricket going ahead, including play against South Africa in Christchurch next week.
My thoughts on conspiracy theorists for some time is that this type of extreme thinking positions people somewhere on the continuum of mental health. It seems to me the more radical the thinking the more predisposed people are to mental health issues and that some of the answer to this should be treating this as a mental health issue
The big issue for the people is fact versus fear and the loss of belief that journalists are still independent of the government, Seems the government spin-doctors are now truly embedded in the media creating a scripted dialogue. The scripted dialogue is perceived as "fake news" rather than FACTUAL. News seems more perception control than actual facts.