Protesters mar ‘golden’ day for Christmas shopping

Covid cases decline but business owners and young cricketers are caught up in vaccine-mandate disruption, writes Sapeer Mayron.

On the second day of freedom for Auckland shoppers and diners, protesters stormed the Newmarket shopping centre, causing an estimated $100,000 loss for retailers up and down Broadway.

The group was one of several that disrupted malls and events across the country yesterday. Newmarket Business Association chief executive Mark KnoffThomas said he was disappointed the crowd took out their frustrations on business owners.

‘‘Today was supposed to be a really golden day as the preChristmas trade builds up. All [the protesters] achieved was to hurt our business owners,’’ he said.

‘‘We were hoping to do $3 to $3.5 million today, which is a solid Saturday in Newmarket . . . it’s just such a missed opportunity for us, I’m really disappointed.’’

Another protest in Auckland at the Domain caused a children’s cricket game to be stopped, after protesters aligned with the Brian Tamaki-led Freedom and Rights Coalition filled the pitch.

And further south in Taranaki, where there are eight active cases of Covid-19, around 300 Freedom and Rights Coalition protesters spread out across New Plymouth. Of those, around 100 were at the Centre City shopping mall without masks, which are mandatory in the mall.

There were also reports of protesters gathering at Wellington’s Queensgate Shopping Centre in Lower Hutt. Police said they were not required to attend. In Christchurch, hundreds of people gathered in Cranmer

Square mid-morning, and marched into the city centre to Cathedral Square in protest of pandemic controls.

Last night a police spokeswoman said apart from traffic congestion, there were ‘‘no major issues’’ caused by the protests.

‘‘We are not aware of any arrests in relation to any of the protests and at this stage do not anticipate any enforcement action being taken.’’

Knoff-Thomas said he respected the protesters’ right to have their say but begged them not to hold up traffic and ‘‘stop the economy’’, especially after the tough lockdown.

‘‘Police maybe could have diverted them, so they didn’t have to go through the main town centre,’’ he suggested.

Yesterday also brought a new low of new case numbers: There were 98 Covid-19 community cases across New Zealand, the second day in a row that new daily cases were below 100. Just 64 of yesterday’s new cases were in Auckland, the lowest daily total for the city since midOctober.

Last night the Whanganui District Health Board confirmed its first community case there since the Delta outbreak – a person who had travelled outside the region and was isolating.