Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has told Parliament’s anti-mandate protesters it’s “now time to go home”
So, who are these people protesting in Parliament grounds?
The Prime Minister has claimed they are anti-vaxxers, but in fact many are vaccinated but strongly oppose mandates, believing people should have the freedom to choose what they put in their body.
Many of the protesters are public servants, doctors, nurses, teachers, members of the Police and Armed Forces, who have willingly complied with past vaccination requirements for themselves and their children, but as a result of concerns over the use the new vaccines before the testing has been completed, have been forced out of work by the government’s mandates.
Jacinda Ardern chose Pfizer, for New Zealand’s vaccination programme. Concerns about the new technology and the fact that the vaccine had been rushed into use before testing had been completed, were voiced by some but their fears of using an unproven vaccine were put to rest by Jacinda Ardern confirming just before the 2020 election that vaccination would be voluntary.
Under the New Zealand Bill of Rights –
Section 10: “Every person has the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without that person’s consent”, and
Section 11: “Everyone has the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment.”
Yet after the Labour government won the 2020 election, Jacinda Ardern broke her word and announced vaccinations would become mandatory for many workers.
Whilst it is claimed that vaccination is still open to choice, when people have to choose between vaccinations and losing their jobs, this is decision under duress, certainly not choice.
The reason that the government gave for making the vaccinations mandatory was the possibility that with our low vaccination rates the health system could be unlikely to be able to cope with the projected infection rates.
But of course this reason no longer exists as we have well over 90% of the population double vaccinated. So what is the reason for maintaining the mandates as they stand, why are we putting good able members of our population out of work at a time when we need every bit of assistance to support our economy?
It is proven fact that those who are fully vaccinated can spread Covid just as readily as the unvaccinated:
Essentially, this means there is no longer any justification for mandates, and not only should they be removed, but, where possible employees forced out of jobs should be offered them back.
The Speaker, Trevor Mallard, who is responsible for the Parliamentary precinct, branded the protesters as “feral” and requested the turning on of the lawn sprinklers outside parliament and playing loud music across the grounds which he though would cause the protestors to leave.
The only success his actions have had is to not only galvanise support for the protesters, but strengthen the view that many of our Members of Parliament are not only arrogant, but hypocrites. Mr Mallard seems to have forgotten the much more violent protest he was once involved in, back during the Springbok tour of 1981, where they camped on Parliament’s front lawn for the more than the 40 days the rugby players were in the country.
Jacinda Ardern claimed that this was not the way we did protests in New Zealand and the Government and Opposition MP’s, made an agreement to refuse to even meet with the protesters
In making such an agreement they are failing in the primary duty they were elected for; “to listen to the concerns of constituents and represent their views in Parliament”.
Our government is also ignoring the knowledge and experience of people who have treated Omicron, such as Dr Shankara Chetty of South Africa, who holds qualifications in medicine, surgery, genetics, biochemistry and microbiology.
And when it comes to using the fear of Omicron to force people to get booster shots (i.e. mandates) – Dr Chetty states: “I think it’s absolutely nonsensical… The only thing vaccines have shown some benefit in, is to prevent severe disease and death.
Dr Chetty believes it will be virtually impossible for anyone to avoid being infected with Omicron and he suggests that the lasting natural immunity it confers – which is far superior to that acquired from vaccination – will provide important herd immunity protection if more deadly variants emerge in the future.
Governments around the world are moving to lift mandates and all other Covid restrictions once Omicron has displaced the far more dangerous Delta as the dominant strain. Given this move to lifting of mandates, maybe the protesters in Wellington are right to demand the removal of mandates.
Whether we agree with vaccinations or not it is an inalienable right as set out in the New Zealand Bill of Rights, Sections 10 & 11 that everyone has the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without that person’s consent”, and to refuse to undergo any medical treatment.”
With these two inalienable rights in mind I firmly believe that the politicians in Wellington have seriously misread the situation and by dismissing the protestors who are standing up for what they believe, they will only cause those protestors to harden their resolve, and result in more good Kiwis like Sir Russell Coutts supporting this protest that is aimed at the freedom of choice for New Zealanders.
The government should be taking notice of this protest movement as I believe that it is just a symptom of a much wider problem with which they are going to rapidly have to deal with and that is the decreasing levels of support for the decisions that they are and have been making such as the mandates, which are slowly but surely destroying our democratic rights.
This protest movement and its supporters are not just against the mandates there are a number of other causes being highlighted in the protest area, but they all have one thing in common across all of the causes, and that is, opposition to the current government’s interference with our democratic rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights.
Andy Loader