National

Covid-19: Luxon still not planning to meet protest

07:37 am on 16 February 2022

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National Party leader Christopher Luxon says there's a wide range of groups involved at the protest at Parliament and he's not planning on meeting with them.

Occupiers have lived in tents on the Parliament lawn for nine days and used their vehicles to blockade surrounding streets.

There have been multiple reports of protesters abusing passersby and blocking access to businesses.

It's led to one of those rare times when both the leader of the government and the opposition appear to be 100 percent in agreement.

They say they don't want a bar of the protest, and they won't be meeting with it.

Luxon told Morning Report there is a wide range of groups represented at the protest.

"There's a wide range of groups represented there, they range from sort of white supremacist, through to separatists and everything in between. There's a wide range of issues from what we can gather from signage and things, that range from sort of anti-authority through to anti-vaccination to anti-mandates.

"There will be really good people in that group as well, I get it, but there's no defined leadership."

Luxon noted the protest proclaimed to be about freedom, but is now impinging on the freedom of people not taking part, and it has an abusive and anti-social tone.

"I just think we're a party that sort of says, 'Hey, listen, you know, come here and protest. That's great and we respect your right to do that, but we also expect you to follow the rule of law as well and to be respectful of others'. That's been the challenge.

"If you think about the small businesses that in around these protests, they're doing it really tough. I mean, really tough, and they didn't ask for this, and they didn't have to be treated and abused. Kids walking to school with masks didn't ask to be abused."

Blogger Cameron Slater, who used to run the right-wing site Whale Oil, criticized Luxon in a speech to the crowd on Tuesday

He said the National Party leader was hiding behind Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Luxon was unbothered.

"I don't know the gentleman you're talking about, and I don't know what he said, and I don't really care."