A New Plymouth mayoral candidate has no qualms about heading back to the anti-mandate protest this weekend - saying he wants to be "part of history".
Photo: RNZ/ Robin Martin
Third-term councillor Murray Chong abandoned the protest when it became violent last week, but he reckoned it was time to return.
"I went down there the first two days and I must admit it got a bit rough there and I left because I felt it was going to be a bit rough and it wasn't what I intended, but they've definitely cleared that up and now it's a great place to be."
Fully-vaccinated since October, Chong said he was against mandates in general.
"I just feel it will be good to be part of history. This is about the word mandate to me.
"So it's not just about the mandate because of the vaxes, it's about our government mandating a lot of things."
Chong said mandates were also being used to push through policies such as Māori wards and Three Waters reform.
He had no problem about attending the protest as mayoral aspirant.
"I think it runs totally in tune with that. I haven't started campaigning or anything like that, so I'm not down there for that, but I am down there to speak on behalf of the ratepayer.
"You've got to remember Three Waters is a big thing and our ratepayers have funded $600 million of assets under the ground and the government is wanting to mandate taking that off us and only give us $31 million for that."
First term councillor Anneka Carlson has also been at the protest.
Carlson announced she would not be getting vaccinated in August.
In a Facebook video she questioned the efficacy of the vaccination and emphasised it should be individual choice whether to be vaccinated or not.
A former police officer, Carlson was now more focused on the vaccine mandate.
"There was a time and a place for the mandates, but we're now at what 93 percent fully vaccinated and the prime minister did say we'd be promised life as normal if we could get these vaccination rates up and they are up but the mandates still stand."
Carlson, who is a former chair of Pride Taranaki, said any bad behaviour would be called out now.
"It's not appropriate. Like I don't think there's a place for that and people getting personal with regard to Jacinda Ardern or any other MPs - I think there's no place for that.
"But unfortunately when you get a diverse group of the community together to stand up like they are doing in this protest you're going to get all walks of life and unfortunately some things don't always go as planned."
Carlson - who opposed the introduction of Vaccine Pass entry to many New Plymouth council facilities - said the protest was the perfect place for her to be at this time.
"One hundred percent. If I didn't think it was the right place for a councillor to be I wouldn't be there.
"My job is to represent my community and that is exactly what I am doing.
"It's an amazing thing to be part of and I really think it is going to go down in history and I want to be there."
New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom said he was not surprised councillors were present at the protest.
"The district has a diverse population with a range of views on our national pandemic response and council's elected team of 15 mirrors the community it serves, so there is no surprise that we have a couple of councillors joining others in Wellington to exercise the right to protest."