Many central Wellington shops face a crisis, university buildings have been closed for eight weeks and many report major disruptions from the illegal anti-vaccination mandates protest at New Zealand’s Parliament, with people’s patience wearing thin and calls for more decisive action.

Retail NZ said the road blocks and disruption were a disaster for local stores. Some retailers had had to close while others were reducing their operating hours.

Chief executive Greg Harford said very few customers were visiting the central city area of the capital near Parliament, which includes some of Wellington’s prime shopping.

“Things were bad before the protests, with the move to the red traffic light setting, but protests and the disruption associated with them are really just keeping customers away from town. Foot traffic is down and sales and down,” he said.

Harford said the government needed to reintroduce the wage subsidy for all businesses affected by omicron — and that the need was particularly acute in Wellington.

Yesterday about 30 Wellington community leaders, including regional mayors, MPs, business leaders and principals signed a letter urging an immediate end to the illegal camp.

Last night Victoria University of Wellington announced its Pipitea campus, which is occupied by the protesters, would remain closed until April 11 to protect staff and students’ health and safety.

Students, disappointed, harassed
Student president Ralph Zambrano said he understood the decision, but students were disappointed more was not done to stop the protest before it disrupted the education they are paying thousands of dollars for.

He said students supported peaceful protest, but they had been subject to harassment and intimidation for 11 days.

The association is running a petition calling for the protesters to be peacefully relocated so the buildings can reopen before April, and now has more than 8000 signatures.

“We want there to be further efforts now to avoid the disruption lasting as long as they’ve set it out to be… which is why we’re going to continue to put pressure for peaceful action,” Zambrano said.

A Wellington City Missioner called on the protesters to go home because of the negative impact on the city’s most vulnerable.

Murray Edridge said it was harder to get around the city and more difficult to access services.

Some streets can’t be used as they’re clogged with protesters’ vehicles, public transport in the capital has had to be re-routed and the mission’s food delivery to people who are isolating with covid-19 and people in need had been disrupted.

Noise, disruption cause extreme anxiety
Edridge said the noise and disruption from protesters was causing extreme anxiety for some, and the mission was also worried about the health risk the large gathering presented.

“The people that come to help us have all been impacted by this. It’s getting very trying on people, and just enhancing the stress on both those who we’re here to serve, and those who are here to serve.”

Edridge said he had no issue with a gathering on the lawns of Parliament, but the blocking of streets was unacceptable.

Meanwhile, an RNZ reporter at the protest site said it was already busy at 10am, the busiest they had seen at that time.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster yesterday said at last count there were about 800 protesters but police expected a “significant number” of people to join the protest over the weekend.

Canadian police clash with anti-vaccine protesters
In Ottawa, the Canadian police have clashed with protesters in the capital as they moved to end an anti-vaccine mandate demonstration.

The operation started early on Friday morning in downtown Ottawa with 70 arrests made.

Police have accused protesters of using children as a shield between lines of officers and the protest site.

The police action came after the government invoked the Emergencies Act to crack down on the three-week protest.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

An anti-vax protest that shut down the centre of Newmarket in New Zealand’s largest city Auckland today may have cost local businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost customers, says the local business association.

Hundreds gathered at 11am at the Auckland Domain before heading to Westfield Newmarket shopping mall via Carlton Gore Road and Broadway.

After gathering outside the mall, they then moved towards Government House in Epsom.

Newmarket Business Association head Mark Knoff-Thomas said the local stores were “very disappointed” by the behaviour of the protesters.

“We all accept that everyone has got the right to protest, but not when your protest ends up bringing a town centre to a standstill, where retailers and hospitality providers have to shut their doors just to be safe because there’s so many people storming down the street,” he said.

“I think it is shameless behaviour and very, very misguided.”

He said stores had high expectations for the day which had been shattered – the second day of Auckland opening up under red alert under the new traffic lights covid-19 system after almost four months in lockdown.

‘People got fed up’
“This should have been one of the best Saturdays of the year for us and the protesters certainly put paid to that because after they moved through Broadway, everybody left because traffic was snarled up and people got fed up and went home.

“It potentially lost Newmarket many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“I hope the protesters never come back to Newmarket ever again. If they want to protest, by all means do it somewhere where it doesn’t impact on business owners because it’s been one of the worst years for business people. Very stressful.

“A lot of people are financially on the ropes and all the protesters have done today is add more stress to those people.”

Earlier, Inspector Beth Houliston of Auckland police said officers were “closely monitoring” the protest activity.

“Our focus remains balancing the safety of all protesters and the public, with the right to peacefully protest.”

Traffic disrupted
Houliston said traffic in the area had been disrupted by the protesters.

“We would like to thank members of the public who have deferred their travel today.

“We also acknowledge those that have been inconvenienced.

“Police will follow-up any incidents of offending or concern identified during the protest activity.”

The protest organisers were calling the rally ‘the Mass Exodus’.

Protest in New Plymouth
Meanwhile, anti-vaccination protesters have again taken to the streets of New Plymouth.

About 200 protesters gathered at Puke Ariki before marching up Devon Street, the city’s main shopping area.

They chanted ‘freedom’ and carried placards calling on the government to end the vaccine mandate.

Many waved flags including campaign banners for former US president Donald Trump and the tino rangatiratanga or Māori flag, and the United Tribes of NZ flag.

Some of Auckland’s strict lockdown rules were eased yesterday, as the country moved to the new traffic light Covid-19 protection framework.

Police say fewer people converged on central Auckland last night compared to pre-covid-19 times.

But officers were kept busy dealing with disorder-related incidents, involving highly intoxicated people.

In one case, a person is in a serious condition after being assaulted on Karangahape Road.

A 22-year-old man has been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He was due to appear in the Auckland District Court today.

98 new community cases
The Ministry of Health reported 98 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with cases in Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Nelson Tasman and Canterbury.

In a statement, the ministry said there were 73 cases in hospital, including seven people in intensive care.

Today’s cases include three in Northland, 64 in Auckland, 21 in Waikato, six in the Bay of Plenty, one in Mangakino, two in Hawke’s Bay and one in Nelson Marlborough.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Fiji police have warned that any attempts to destabilise and cause instability will be investigated and dealt with, reports The Fiji Times.

The warning came from Acting Commissioner Police Rusiate Tudravu yesterday in the wake of two major fires in Ba and Raiwai at the weekend.

He claimed some Fijians were quick to use the two fires to incite violence and rally more support against the government, claiming they were linked.

He said people instigating movements of violence and instability from overseas or hiding behind “fake profiles” on social media were selfish and self-centred because any acts of violence would only lead to more suffering.

The fires destroyed the Central Arcade in Ba and Tappoos warehouse in Raiwai, Suva, on Sunday night.

Talebula Kate of The Fiji Times reports that the Ba blaze is a major loss to the affected businesses during these challenging times.

Museum, town hall undamaged
Minister of Local Government Premila Kumar said the National Fire Authority (NFA) fire-fighters were quite responsive and managed to save the museum and town hall.

“There has been no damage to these facilities. Despite the windy weather conditions, the quick and efficient effort by our NFA team is appreciated,” she said.

“The outstanding continuous work by our firefighters is commendable, as the impact of the fire could have been extremely detrimental.

“Unfortunately, the cause of the fire is still unknown at this stage and the cost of the damage is yet to be determined.

“Out of the eight shops in the arcade, six shops had tenants and were occupied.

“The arcade accommodated a fish store, a saloon/billiard room, a second hand clothing store, an electrical appliance shop, and two restaurants.”

Eight market vendors were also housed at the arcade.

Handicraft vendors
“These vendors were situated at the SME Market at the arcade and were selling curios and handicraft for their livelihood,” the minister said.

“It is rather disturbing to note that all their stock was destroyed by the fire.

“The number of fires in the country is alarming and becoming a concern. As per the statistics from NFA, there have been 57 fire incidents from 1 January to 1 August 2021,” Kumar vsaid.

“Fifty five were residential fire incidents and two were commercial fires, including [Sunday]’s incident. Sadly, there have been four deaths in the residential fire incidents so far this year; three in Nadi and one at Tacirua.

“We would like to reiterate that we need to be responsible and keep our homes and commercial properties fire-safe at all times,” the minister said.

The Ba Central Arcade Building was a 17-year-old structure and was insured after a valuation of the properties carried out in 2020.

Nevertheless, the Ba Town Council has a loan of approximately F$1.6 million (NZ$1.1 million), which needs to be paid off.

The council has been directed to work on practicable strategies to pay off the exorbitant amount of loan considering the difficult times we are in right now.

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz