Colin Parkinson
I am writing to you regarding the shameful acts of unlawfulness that many have witnessed outside parliament.
We saw protesters accused of “Preventing people from being able to go about their business”. This doesn’t really compare to the disruption caused to their lives by the government.
I understand that many of the protesters didn’t even want to be there. Many have been mandated out of their jobs and face ongoing discrimination based on their choices around “vaccination”. Their lives have been disrupted by government overreach.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Were they likened to a “River of Filth” by Michael Wood?
- Is that hate speech?
- Who ended up plumbing in flushable toilets to make the area more sanitary?
- Who blocked access to trucks that were trying to empty the portable toilets?
- Who smashed and stole their showers?
- Did police accidentally spray themselves with pepper spray?
- Is there any evidence of someone “throwing acid”?
- Did someone set water sprinklers on the protesters (including women and children) leaving them wet in the cold all night?
- Was someone blasting music and propaganda from the parliament building at the protesters, also disturbing residents?
- Did we see police damaging private property, including cars and a shower block?
- Have the government’s needless restrictions been preventing people from going about their business?
- Did we see the fire brigade using water cannons on ‘civilians’?
I watched an interview yesterday where you said that you believed pepper spray was not used, yet reporters said that it was and plenty of video evidence shows that it was.
- Was pepper spray used on or near children?
Although the protesters appear to have achieved more than “Kiwibuild” by setting up a small village complete with a school, public toilets and showers, also managing to feed hundreds (sometimes even thousands) a day, the whole site was destroyed in a day, provoking many to anger.
The protesters were then blamed for the whole situation.
You created the situation. Some of these people have lost EVERYTHING!
Your government refused to speak with the protester which only aggravated the situation. Most of the protesters were peaceful and had even organised internal security to ensure that those who would cause trouble were removed or otherwise kept in check.
Winston Peters proved that any politician who chose to meet with the protestors would have been safe and unharmed.
I am sure that it is fair to say that he is far from the most loved politician in New Zealand, yet even he was able to meet and talk with the protestors. But you refused to talk even through a mediator.
This is not the way New Zealand politicians are expected to act.
You could have prevented this. You could have listened to their concerns.
Many have been separated from loved ones for far too long now. Even those overseas with an exemption from “vaccination” are unable to enter New Zealand due to being unvaccinated. Others are unable to see families that are fully vaccinated because their families are not citizens of New Zealand. There has been little consistency in the government’s policy and it is understandable that many are frustrated at the lack of logic.
How is it that an unvaccinated person from Auckland (who may have been in contact with a positive case) can travel anywhere in the country without a negative test (possibly even carrying the virus) but a double vaccinated person from another country (who has to test negative before travel) can still not even enter the country, even though our cases per day here may be far higher per capita than in the other country?
Could you please show the “science” behind this logic? Where are the data that this decision is based on?
Your Labour government is about as “open and transparent” as a padlocked brick.
Sincerely,
Colin Parkinson