The hīkoi and Parliament: A photo essay

The House - Protests at Parliament are two-a-penny. There are protests every week, sometimes every day. They range from the one-person vigil, to a few thousand cheering on the denunciations crackling from overtaxed loudspeakers. The hīkoi was an entirely new category.

To get your head around the scale of the event, consider this photo above of the crowd in the Parliament grounds. Now consider that this is a photo taken before the hīkoi arrived at Parliament. The hīkoi, when it began arriving, more than doubled the crowd.

Hīkoi participants were well informed about Parliament's goings on. People I spoke with were not opposing abstractions, but policy and events they were familiar with. This is not always true of protesters. The poster in the photo is a stylised depiction of Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke tearing up the Treaty Principles Bill at the beginning of the haka last week.

This placard quotes the Speaker Gerry Brownlee's reaction to that same protest in the chamber. Parliament's rules for its own TV broadcasts stipulate that when a 'disturbance' occurs in the chamber, cameras are to focus on the chair (ie the Speaker). The downside is that the Speaker's own reaction to events can become intrinsically linked to the incident.

Whether or not MPs venture outside to protest themselves (as some from Labour, Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs did), or front up outside on the concourse (as some from National, ACT and NZ First did), they are not unaware of events happening outside. Here the Speaker, Gerry Brownlee observes the protest from the Parliament House tiles. As Speaker (and therefore landlord) he would have been receiving regular updates from both building security and the police.

Another potential sign of political awareness were the very large flags representing both Mongrel Mob and Black Power - larger than any I have seen at previous protests. Patched members were not in short supply either. The hīkoi ended two days before the commencement of a new law that will prohibit gang patches in public places. Those public places will not include Parliament grounds, however.

By the time the hīkoi itself came into view at the northern end of Lambton Quay, Parliament's grounds already held more people than anyone I spoke to could remember.

Already, people were finding any position they could, whether up a steep slope, on a fence, or in a plant-free spot in the gardens. These were people who realised they had little chance of getting any closer. They are barely inside the grounds and on a slope facing entirely the wrong direction.

They were looking for positions in the trees, from where they might be able to see what was happening - even if they could not, at this range, hear what was being said.

As a huge flag made its way up the steps I was picking my way through the crowd in the opposite direction. It was extremely difficult and incredibly slow. Parliament has a lot of walls and very few (mostly narrow) gates.

There were two ambulances parked on Bowen Street in case they were needed, but it was very difficult to access those in need. I came across an elderly woman collapsed in the heat and crush, being tended to by fellow protesters, one of whom was on the phone to the ambulance service reporting the woman's vitals. The scene was outside Parliament's gates, but moving her would have been tough. If an incident had occurred inside the grounds that panicked the crowd, a stampede would likely have been catastrophic, as people were penned in by many more walls than exits.

Toitu te Tiriti was the catch cry of the hīkoi and the most common banner (other than the profusion of Tino Rangatiratanga and Te Kara flags). One of the best things about any protest though, is just how creative people get with the placards. Tarantino might be pleased to know just how many 'Kill the Bill' placards there were.

David Seymour (whose bill it is), and Christopher Luxon (who agreed to add it to the coalition agreement), received roughly equal treatment in the signage.

As you might imagine, the signs were not complimentary.

RNZ's The House, with insights into Parliament, legislation and issues, is made with funding from Parliament's Office of the Clerk.