A high-profile Auckland landlord says he doesn't regret leaving a negative review about his own tenant's continued use of COVID-19 vaccine passes, despite coming in for heavy criticism.
After the Government relaxed COVID-19 restrictions earlier this month, businesses are no longer required to ask for proof of vaccination as a condition of entry. However some venues have continued to ask for passes in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
One such venue is Whammy Bar, a well-known music venue within Karangahape Rd's iconic St Kevin's Arcade complex.
Co-owner Tom Anderson told Newshub while there had been some unfavourable reactions to the decision - mostly from people who aren't patrons anyway - the overall response to keeping vaccine passes has been predominantly positive.
But one surprising detractor is former Shortland Street actor and musician Paul Reid, whose commercial property investment firm The Icon Group owns St Kevin's Arcade and is Whammy Bar's landlord.
Reid took to Facebook late on Monday night to ridicule them for keeping the vaccine requirement in place.
"This used to be a cool punk rock dive bar," he wrote. "You know punk anti-establishment cool kinda vibe.. now there's Nothing more punk rock than 'can I scan your vaccine pass please' lol."
The post immediately caused a social media furore, with people criticising Reid for intentionally trying to damage his own tenant's business. But the landlord denied this was the case.
"I'm not hurting them, just keen to get some real dialogue going," he wrote.
"They are free to run their business how they see fit. I just thought it was a strange move from a punk rock dive bar to continue using vaccine passes now that most of the world have gotten COVID and recovered."
Eventually Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick caught wind of the review and called Reid out herself.
"I've seen a lot of things in my time, but it's a first for commercial landlord negging his tenant who are doing their best to keep our community safe," she wrote on Twitter.
"Maybe the real punk rock is the tenant unions, venue protection and community ownership we found along the way. Thank you and good night."
Again Reid came firing back.
"I've seen a lot of things in my time and it's not the first I've seen the The (sic) elected member of Auckland Jump on age old narrative that landlords are evil," he replied to Swarbrick.
"Now that she owns her own Apartment on K rd she better be careful or she will end up as the establishment herself."
Whammy co-owner Anderson described Reid's negative review as "wild", telling Newshub he'd never heard of something like it happening before.
And he didn't appreciate the criticism.
"When your landlord's telling you what is or isn't punk rock, then the world has truly gone insane," Anderson said.
"I would argue that having been into punk rock since I was 14 - what's that, 26 years? - it's about community and caring for people and bringing others up. I think making sure that our staff and community are as safe as possible is very punk rock."
Anderson took issue with both Reid's review and a subsequent comment characterising a $60,000 reduction of Whammy Bar's rent over the pandemic as a gift, rather than something he was contractually obliged to do.
Despite the backlash, Reid on Tuesday told Newshub he had no regrets about his comments.
"Look, I think as a member of the public, I'm allowed to express my viewpoint about a business's decision, especially one which I have helped financially more than anyone else," he said.
"I guess I just think it's a very exclusive policy for something that is generally kind of quite inclusive. Like, the punk scene is all about anti-government, anti-mandate, anti-conformity - and I just find it weird how the alt-left suddenly became the mainstream establishment."
Asked whether he was anti-vaccine or anti-mandate, Reid wouldn't give a definitive answer, telling Newshub: "I don't really like labels."
But he did describe Whammy Bar's decision to retain the vaccine pass requirement as "discriminatory", saying they were choosing to exclude some members of the public.
"The alt-left scene, which Whammy is so involved in, it exerts celebrating inclusivity, diversity, acceptance. [But] it seems to not apply when people don't want to stick a needle in their arm."
Anderson could only laugh when he heard Reid had described Whammy as 'alt-left'.
"There's no such thing," he scoffed.
"We are proud anarchists and socialists of the old-school tradition of self-organisation, of caring about others. However, living within the capitalist nightmare that we do and being beholden to the current situation, we're just working within the framework of what we've got."
Anderson also denied the policy was discriminatory.
"Discriminatory to whom? This is a temporary measure. It would be discriminatory for us to not encourage mask use and vaccine passes for our staff members who are immunocompromised, for our clientelle who are immunocompromised."
Swarbrick on Tuesday said it was "unfortunate" Reid had chosen to target Whammy Bar, and criticised those who were calling out hospitality venues for implementing the health measures they felt were appropriate.
"Somebody online pointed out that punk rock came into existence before I did, so it would be remiss of me to make a comment on what punk rock is," she told Newshub.
"But as somebody who spent several years on independent and student radio, I can say that perhaps it's the case - as many sentiments across Twitter in particular have echoed - that I don't know how much landlord and punk rock align."
As of last week, the unvaccinated were given the green light to return to hospitality venues and large event gatherings after vaccine pass rules were ditched.
They're also able to enter certain public sector and close contact roles now that vaccine requirements have been dropped for some previously-mandated workforces.
The changes came into effect at 11:59pm on April 4, the second tranche of adjustments the Government has recently made to New Zealand's COVID-19 response after removing outdoor gathering limits, increasing indoor gathering sizes and dropping QR code scanning.
In announcing the shift in March, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said vaccine passes were no longer as effective as they once were as the vast majority of New Zealanders are now vaccinated and many of those who aren't "are likely to have had COVID".
