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Dear John, The protest in Wellington has been downplayed by the Prime Minister and others have commented that it was a peaceful crowd. However Parliamentary Security advised all staff and Members of Parliament to stay inside the Parliamentary precinct while the protest was taking place (which was several hours). All main exits were closed and heavily guarded by Police. There were several thousand, noisy and angry protesters right up to the steps of Parliament. With extraordinary security arrangements put in place by Police and Parliamentary security, no MPs attended. The protestors were people from all walks of life protesting at the mandate for sectors like health and education to be fully vaccinated by specified dates. Some were protesting about the lack of choice around the vaccine and others were protesting about the compulsory jab or no job element and the lack of a sunset clause in the legislation. I am sure some were protesting about the on-going level 2 restrictions in Wellington and the rest of the country let alone the Level 3 that continues to threaten lives and livelihoods in Auckland in particular. Lives are in tatters now and just like a natural disaster, the
fault does not lie with those whose businesses and livelihoods have
collapsed or are collapsing. The country was only 20 per cent vaccinated when Delta entered the community via poorly managed MIQ facilities in June. Now we face not enough ICU capacity and a broken MIQ system. There has been no preparation for mass community medical care for people with Covid-19 in hospitals. Now we have sick people isolating in their cars or at home alone, risking death. There is no rapid antigen testing at any border. Only Pfizer boosters have been ordered. There are no alternative vaccines or therapeutic drugs ordered. Over 102,000 people have missed out on planned medical care and procedures. Many of these people have already been waiting more than four months for diagnoses and follow up on cancer, cataract operations and hip replacements and the list goes on. For Auckland, the uncertainty about travel to other parts of New Zealand over the Christmas period drags on. The government has not set out a plan for the Auckland borders and certainly has not got a vaccination confirmation system up and running so that everything will go smoothly next month. We know that over 300 Police are involved in the border management and we know that criminals are taking advantage of this as we hear of increasing burglaries, thefts, assaults and murders. So what are National doing about it? As you know Labour has a parliamentary majority and this makes it very difficult for us to stop their legislation, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t fighting. We have called for a Royal Commission to investigate the Government’s handling of Covid-19. We have launched a Covid-19Delta management plan ‘Opening Up’ and a plan to save livelihoods and unleash the economy called ‘Back in Business’. In these plans we have detailed what National would do if we were in charge and thankfully the Government seems to be adopting our ideas at a rate of about 1 or 2 per week, currently. I encourage them to adopt both plans entirely. Chris Bishop the National spokesperson for Covid-19 response has received huge support for his Petition to end MIQ. In just over a week over 80,000 people have signed it. Your team of National MPs are fired up by the struggle and
heartbreak we are seeing as a result of Government incompetence. We
are completely focused on how we can help New Zealanders in the short
term and return to Government in 2023. New Zealand cannot afford
another term of this incoherent, disastrous Labour
Government. Best wishes, Judith
Hon Judith
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