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March 03, 2022
Credibility loss created window for parliament protest end
Adam Gifford
Posted On March 3, 2022
Download AudioDeputy Police Commissioner Wally Haumaha says anti-mandate protesters were given the chance to end their occupation of Parliament grounds with dignity but instead chose to stay and fight.
The protesters were cleared yesterday in an operation involving several hundred officers from around the country.
There were unprecedented scenes of violence as protesters burned tents and children’s play equipment as they were forced from the grounds and threw paving stones, steel bars and wooden pallets at police.
Mr Haumaha says during the 23 days of the occupation, police tried to deescalate the situation, including taking some protest leaders to meet Te Ātiawa to talk about their issues.
He says it would have been hard for police to move earlier when there were several thousand people on site, but over the past week, the protest lost credibility because of attacks on police and tangata whenua.
“So all of those different factions that came in took the protest in a totally different way and I feel our negotiations with different ones to leave peacefully, to show some leadership, the take had been laid down, now it was the time to go home, so all those opportunities were afforded to the lead groups with no avail, they decided they were going to hang in for the duration and today we just had to take back the streets, take back our parliament, restore the whenua back to the ahi kaa, back to Te Ātiawa,” Mr Haumaha says.
Speaker Trevor Mallard says the grounds of parliament will be closed until further notice.
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