Budget Day ‘carkoi’ protests delayed traffic on Auckland and Tauranga motorways ahead of a hikoi on Parliament.
Protesters earlier took the roads to oppose government policies toward Māori, ‘activating’ for today’s National Māori Action Day - and caused traffic delays around the country.
It’s the second time Māori have mobilised on a national scale with the first hīkoi taking place last December.
The national protest coincides with today’s budget announcements.
In the past I’ve worked near parliament and walked past the parliament lawn every day. There were protests all the time, so many protests, and mostly they respectfully kept to one spot to allow others to use the lawn (it’s a popular lunch in the sun spot for nearby workers).
Recently there does seem to be a rise in the number of people stopping traffic in their protests. Does that just represent that protesters aren’t feeling heard so they feel they need to make the news to get their point out? Or is this just that there isn’t really a “protest spot” in Auckland or Tauranga so they take to the streets?
Another question is whether there are actually more occurrences than there used to be, or if we just notice it more (say, from more reporting in the news). I’m not sure that’s an answerable question though, I don’t think there’s a a central record of all protests and the number of those that stopped traffic.
There was a protest that blocked traffic in my town, a couple of months back. I was caught in it while returning to work after making a delivery.
It lasted 5 minutes and then I was on my way. They were polite the whole time, and I was polite back. I literally lost 5 minutes, who cares.
I don’t get the problem.
It’s a bad faith argument to push the idea of what ‘valid’ protest is into something that can just be completely ignored, hence defeating it’s purpose
Look at the restore passenger rail protests, people didn’t lose five minutes, they lost hours.
Would you still feel the same way if that was the case?