Politicians decry protest disruption, say restrictions will end eventually

Vaccine mandates and passes should eventually end and the government should set a timeline for that, opposition parties say, but they do not support today's protests.

Protesters camped overnight on Parliament grounds in contravention of the rules, and three were arrested this afternoon as they tried to break through police barricades and mount the steps.

Their vehicles were parked around the gates and the Cenotaph war memorial, and blocked nearby roads for many hours.

Wellington mayor Andy Foster said the council had the power to move cars parked illegally by people protesting the government's covid restrictions, but it won't at this stage.

Foster said fed-up residents had contacted the council to see if they could do something about the vehicles.

However, he said it had not made any moves to do this out of concern for the safety of parking wardens.

"It could escalate and we have unfortunately enough health and safety issues in respect particularly to our parking enforcement staff in a normal day-to-day events let alone putting them into that kind of situation," he said.

He said while people have the right to protest, it was time for them to move on.

Police said three men had been charged with obstruction after they tried to push through a fence on Parliament grounds.

Wellington District Commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell said the breaching of the police line was "extremely disappointing".

"Until this occurred, the activity of most of those present has been peaceful for the majority of the day.

"Police will maintain a presence at Parliament tonight and will continue to monitor activity recognising that people had a right to peaceful protest."

* See how today's events unfolded with RNZ's live blog.

Parnell said a small part of Molesworth Street remains impassable to through traffic and the area around Parliament, including parts of Lambton Quay and lower Bowen Street, should be avoided, but that traffic around the city was "largely free-flowing".

Politicians questioned by media on their way into the House this afternoon were unified in their opposition to the disruption caused.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the protests did not represent the views of most New Zealanders.

"Of course New Zealanders have the right to protest, but New Zealanders also have the right to be vaccinated and the right to be kept as safe as possible in a pandemic and that's exactly what we're focused on - and that's what the vast majority of New Zealanders are doing," she said.

"Ultimately any decision around the management of protests on Parliament's forecourt or indeed anywhere is a matter for the police, and it's an operational one that for good reason you don't want politicians intervening in."

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins felt the protesters' message was not obvious.

"From what I have seen of the protesters on the forecourt, they're deeply unhappy about a whole range of things and it's difficult to identify exactly what their cause is sometimes," he said

National Party leader Christopher Luxon was also unclear on exactly what was being protested - he did know he disapproved of their methods.

"I think there's a range of protests out there, it's very confusing to work out what it is. Essentially I think it's not fair ... when you're impinging on others' freedoms as they are, by blocking roads and making it difficult to get to and fro from work - that's not what it's about.

"I appreciate that there's a range of views, but bottom line what we're seeing there is pretty antisocial and pretty abusive."

National's Covid-19 Response Spokesperson Chris Bishop on the other hand believed their causes largely boiled down to one.

"That protest out there is an anti-vaccination protest," he said. "They're signs of all sorts of different things - 1080, three waters - there are anti-mandate signs but it's fundamentally, I would say to you, an antivaccine protest. They deny the fundamentals of the science.

"That's why you don't see any MP out there talking to them because they don't want to give succour to the protesters ... and by implication say that they support the protests because we don't. We fundamentally as a Parliament believe in the science of vaccination."

He recognised some of the protesters - people from his electorate in the Hutt Valley - but he did not stand with them.

"It's sometimes quite tough to see people you know have such violent disagreement with my views," he said.

"At the end of the day they have the right to protest, they have the right to free speech, I just ask that they do that in a respectful way because there are Wellingtonians out there trying to go about their normal business."

ACT leader David Seymour was similarly derisive of the approach.

"It's possible to have a peaceful protest but I think what they're doing is far too intense. I think what they need to do is respect the law, respect people's basic property rights and not believe that because they disagree they have the right to trample over a whole lot of other people.

"I mean, they're trespassed, they're breaking the law ... but look, I just think it's rude to set up your tents on someone's lawn - not everyone in New Zealand can do it, what makes them different?"

Seymour did have a point to make about the government's Covid-19 restrictions, however.

"Look at somewhere as out of the way as the Canadian province of Saskatchewan that's just announced that all of their restrictions will be gone by the end of this month, as the country of Denmark and other parts of the world move in that direction. I think New Zealanders as they watch the Australian tourism industry kick off from the end of this month deserve some hope and some finality in the Covid response too.

"When it comes to this question of hope and an exit strategy from Covid, I think it's worth asking the prime minister - is she constantly reviewing the evidence, what does Omicron mean for transmission, and if Omicron means that vaccination is less effective against transmission then does the rationale for her mandate policy stand?

"ACT has always said testing should be an alternative to mandates and actually we should have a choice - of our own businesses choosing what their particular vaccination policy is."

He said he wanted hope, and certainty.

"Of course the government should be guided by the public health advice and constantly reviewing the evidence - it appears that Omicron, vaccination and transmissibility give a different calculation from what we had before."

"When will people have some hope of finality in the Covid response? An end to the restrictions and the borrowing and deficits that are leading to increases in the costs of living that people feel all over the place."

Bishop too felt time was running out for restrictions, and called for the government to give a more decisive timeline, in line with Luxon's statements on Morning Report today.

"Omicron has changed the game. Under Delta and under the wild strain of Covid the vaccines were very efficient and effective at preventing and limiting transmission - that's not so much the case with Omicron ... so the argument about the collective benefit of vaccine passes and vaccine mandates is diminshed," he said.

"We are going to have to have some sort of timeline for the phasing out. You can see the division that they create and I'm not sure how tenable it is in the long term to have people who are unvaccinated shut out from quite big sectors of society ... we just need a timeline, and a bit of a steer from the government as to how long it's going to take."

His government counterpart Hipkins said there was no room for complacency on Omicron at this point, but the restrictions would only be used as long as they were necessary.

"All of the international experience tells us we should be expecting to see an increase in case numbers," he said.

"What we've always said is that the mandates or the requirements for certain workforces to be vaccinated will only be in place for as long as there is a strong public health rationale for them. At the moment there is - there clearly is, and particularly as we head into an Omicron, and quite a large Omicron outbreak - but it won't be that way forever.

"We'll keep that under constant review as we've always said that we would ... it will be a nationwide decision, making that decision either locally or regionally simply wouldn't be practical.

Ardern had the same message.

"We only want to use things like restrictions and passes and mandates for as long as they are providing safety for the community. At the moment we know that vaccines are making a difference even with this Omicron wave, and that's why we still have those requirements still in place.

"When they're not needed, of course we'd look to remove them."