A former Labour Party President says the anti-mandate protests taking over Parliament's lawns will likely "solve itself".
The anti-mandate protest is entering its eighth day and politicians and police are pondering how to get the hoards of people to leave. The crowds have been causing chaos for Wellingtonians blocking traffic, yelling abuse and playing music late into the night.
But political Commentator Mike Williams, who was Labour president during Helen Clark's years as Prime Minister, said the police might not even need to move the group on.
"We are in the middle of a pandemic, if what is going on in front of parliament is not a super spreader event I don't know what is," Williams told the AM Show.
It comes after a record 981 new community cases were reported in New Zealand on Monday, with 39 cases in hospital.
Williams says the protesters are likely unvaccinated and many aren't wearing masks, while the country is in the middle of an outbreak of the most infectious COVID variant.
"This is probably, regrettably, going to solve itself," he said.
The protesters are demanding the Government give a date for when COVID-19 vaccine mandates will be removed. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has previously said they will be removed when they are no longer needed.
Political Commentator Trish Sherson, a former ACT Party staffer, says while stopping the mandates seems to be at the heart of the protests, the mixed messages make it hard for people to connect with the content of the protest.
"There isn't really a coherent set of demands," Sherson told the AM Show.
"They have done themselves a terrible disservice because of the violence of some of the messages," she said.
She says this is a difficult situation for the Government, who at this point "don't know how to resolve it".
