‘We stand with Ottawa’: muddled messages and fraying consensus at New Zealand’s anti-vax protest

Parliament protests wane amid a profusion of concerns ranging from a plandemic' to genetic manipulation and the plight of an oil refinery

On day two of a protest against New Zealand's Covid-19 policies on Parliament's grounds in Wellington, the stamina and consensus of the crowd was fraying. On Tuesday, thousands arrived in convoys from across the country, but by Wednesday just a few hundred were left, despite pleas from protesters on social media for the crowd to hold the line".

Perhaps it is because the list of complaints is extensive - there are signs about the vaccine mandates and restrictions for the unvaccinated, signs blaring vaccine disinformation, conspiracies that Covid-19 is a plandemic", worries about gene therapy manipulation of children, accusations of media corruption, claims of iwi (tribal) groups selling out, and requests to save a Northland oil refinery from closure.

Cars are scrawled with imported causes and slogans: We stand with Ottowa", referring to the Canadian protests against vaccine mandates and drain the swamp", a catch-cry of Donald Trump's presidency.