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

Fiji’s opposition National Federation Party has blamed 1150 pandemic deaths on the Bainimarama government’s “shameful and despicable” ego-driven leadership.

“Stop bragging and taking the Lord’s name in vain when you have presided over the single biggest disaster and loss of lives in our country’s 51 years of independence,” said Dr Biman Prasad, a former professor of economics at the University of the South Pacific.

“Talk about issues like how to alleviate poverty that reached almost 30 percent at the time of the so-called ‘Bainimarama Boom’ but has now escalated to about 50 percent due to economic depression caused by covid-19.”

This is the message to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama from Dr Prasad after a message posted on the Fiji government social media page this week showing the prime minister as saying the battle against covid-19 pandemic was about to end — and declaring he had proved critics wrong and was in firm control.

“This is a national leader who brags about himself and claims he will secure every Fijian from clear and present danger,” Dr Prasad said in a statement.

“The prime minister forgets what he announced at the start of the second wave of the pandemic on April 19.”

“Then, he spoke about a grave and present danger to the lives of our people and the need to comply with strict measures and enforcement of lockdowns to contain and eliminate the virus.

‘1150 citizens’ lose their lives
“Almost six months later with the virus out of control due to the PM’s egoistic and ‘My Way or the Highway’ leadership in deciding to open up containment zones, 1150 citizens have lost their lives through no fault of theirs and more than 51,200 people have so far been infected”.

The Johns Hopkins University global covid dashboard (with data supplied by the Fiji government) states 649 deaths and 51,386 confirmed cases in Fiji as at today.

“And in a bid to keep a lid on the death toll and rate of infection, the Health Ministry split the death toll into two categories as well as significantly reduced testing and contact tracing.”

Dr Prasad claimed the ministry was now announcing deaths that occurred in the last three months saying it took time to investigate and determine the cause of death.

“It is shameful and despicable that instead of sympathising with the families who have lost loved ones and offering his genuine and sincere condolences, the PM showers himself with praise for his handling of the crisis,” Dr Prasad said.

“Does he have the courage to go to each individual family, undoubtedly, still grieving the loss of a loved one, and tell them that he is in firm control and protecting them from the grave danger posed by the pandemic?”

‘From containment to containers’
It was the prime minister, his government and their “From containment to containers” policy — allowing the virus to spread freely by opening up containment zones and installing three 12m container freezers as morgues — who must be held responsible for the “needless loss of life of our citizens and heaping pain, suffering and misery on the people”.

“The nation is at the crossroads, at odds with itself, due to failed leadership. Yet, we have a PM who says he is in firm control of the situation,” he said.

“This is symptomatic of a typical dictator who thinks he or she is always right despite the fact that people are dying, poverty is increasing and people are struggling to put food on the table.

“This façade must end at the next elections,” Dr Prasad added.

Fiji faces a general election next year.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Breaching covid-19 restrictions in New Zealand will now mean an increased infringement fee of up to $12,000 for individuals when imposed by a court, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

Speaking at the daily covid-19 briefing today, Ardern said fines for breaches of the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act were being increased because of the view that the infringement regime did not reflect the severity of breaches.

“Our success has been really based on the fact that people by and large have been really compliant … however, there has been the odd person [who] has broken the rules and put others at risk,” she said.

“Specifically we’ve had some people break out of MIQ, including in a handful of cases with covid, who have posed a threat to the community.”

She said there were some issues very early on, but they had reduced when the government introduced fines for those who breached the rules, such as alert levels or breaking the rules of MIQ.

“It’s Cabinet’s view that these fees don’t properly reflect the significant social and economic impacts of a single case of covid-19 getting out into the community, and nor do they act as a sufficient incentive to play by the rules,” Ardern said.

Like with a traffic ticket, people can be issued an infringement notice for breaking the rules. If the infringement fee is not paid in full by the due date it is referred to the Ministry of Justice for enforcement, when it becomes a “fine”.

On-the-spot fines
On-the-spot infringement notice fees were initially set at $300, with fines of up to $1000 when imposed by a court, but Ardern today said they would increase.

Infringement notices would increase to $4000 for individuals, and $12,000 for companies, while fines imposed by courts would increase to a maximum of $12,000 for individuals and $15,000 for companies.

Covid-19 infringement fines. Video: RNZ News

People convicted for criminal offences — such as intentionally failing to comply with an order, or intentionally threatening, assaulting, or hindering an enforcement officer — may also face fines and prison.

The fine for criminal offending would increase from $4000 to $12,000 or six months imprisonment, with an additional fee of up to $15,000 introduced for companies.

Ardern said those were maximums subject to the court’s discretion, and would take effect from November 2021, subject to the passing of the Covid-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill.

These fines are for people who do something specified as an infringement offence in a covid-19 order.

She said there was a balance between making sure people understood the rules, but also the consequences of breaking those rules.

Setting up the framework
“I think the sheer magnitude of having someone with covid-19 who breaks those rules, the impact on the community, we need to make sure that the fines really do reflect the gravity of the situation.”

The prosecutions were not made by politicians, she said.

“The prosecution decisions aren’t ultimately made by us. We need to set up the framework and the infringements that are available should those prosecutions be taken. And I think actually from the general public there would probably be a bit of a view that when you are putting people at risk you need to have an infringement regime that reflects the seriousness of some of that rule-breaking.

“Where they’re used and how they’re used, what fines are awarded, that sits out of our hands.”

In a statement, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said examples of infringement offences would include failure to wear a face covering in places where it is mandatory.

Criminal offences could include travelling without permission, or travelling for a purpose other than what was permitted, from an alert level 4 or 3 area to alert level 2.

14 new community cases
The Ministry of Health has reported 14 new community cases of covid-19 in the community today — a drop from the past three days.

In a statement, the ministry said there is also one historical case at the border.

Thirteen of today’s cases have been epidemiologically linked while one is still being investigated.

Today’s number of community cases includes one positive result from Upper Hauraki, which is under a section 70 order. They are a household contact who was tested yesterday, the ministry said.

“Two previously confirmed cases from Saturday and from yesterday have now been reclassified as under investigation,” Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.

“As a result, today’s net increase is 13 cases.”

Dr Bloomfield said the ministry expected another further 50 to 60 cases from household contacts in the next week or so.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz