National's Simon Bridges believes the Government needs to outline how it will de-escalate the volatile anti-vaccine protest at Parliament, comparing its current approach to "Dad's Army… without the army".
It's day 11 of the demonstration that has seen protesters erect tents and gazebos on Parliament's front lawn and block surrounding streets with their vehicles, causing massive disruption to commuters, local businesses and the wider Wellington public.
Police have continuously threatened to tow the vehicles, but that's still yet to happen, while the protesters have ignored pleas to go home or to remove their vehicles.
Bridges, the former National Party leader and current finance spokesperson, told AM on Friday that he doesn't believe the protesters are going anywhere.
"They're pretty organised. What Jacinda Ardern and David Parker should be doing is giving us a sense of how they are going to just de-escalate this," he said.
"At the moment, it does feel a bit, I'm sorry David, Dad's Army. Actually, without the army. I think we deserve a really clear sense of what is going to happen here from the Government."
There was progress of a kind on Thursday night when Speaker Trevor Mallard released a statement on behalf of all parties in Parliament clarifying there would be no dialogue with protesters "until the protest returns to one within the law".
That means clearing illegally parked vehicles, removing structures on Parliament's grounds and "the cessation of the intimidation of Wellingtonians". The statement suggested parliamentarians may speak to the protesters if the demonstration abides by the law.
Parker, a Labour minister appearing alongside Bridges on AM, said if protesters followed what was requested, the Government "wouldn't object to meeting with people because they wouldn't be acting illegally".
"But, at the moment, they're acting illegally," he said.
Asked who from the Government could then meet the protesters, Parker said that was a "decision for the future".
"I think what politicians said yesterday as a group is that we're not going to be cajoled and threatened into meeting them by a group of people who are acting illegally disrupting people's lives.
"In terms of Simon's point as to how do you bring this process to an end. Well they could, of course, just abide by the law and it would end naturally. But enforcement decisions aren't for politicians, they're for the police."
Both Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National leader Christopher Luxon have avoided saying how they believe police should deal with the protesters, acknowledging that isn't something politicians should have a role in managing. Luxon, however, has criticised Mallard's decision to use speakers and sprinklers last week in an unsuccessful attempt to deter demonstrators.
National also wants to hear from the Government regarding what may be the criteria to trigger the end to vaccine mandates.
"I think there is a growing sense, and it's not anti-vax and it's not weird to ask this, but you know, a bit like the creamed rice in my pantry, there is an expiry date and there should also be on the mandates," Bridges told AM.
"The Government owes it to us to give us a very clear sense of the plan, the clarity around the timeline and the criteria by which they'll get rid of mandates because they are in the end very significant rules and regulations on New Zealanders and we should understand when they are going."
Parker said vaccine mandates will be removed eventually, but wouldn't provide a date or criteria for that.
That's similar to what Ardern has said. She told AM this week that it was difficult to provide a timeline when COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
"When we can, we will. But when we're on the up side of a curve in an Omicron outbreak, now's not the time to do that," Ardern said. "So we've also struggled in the past to put dates on the easing of different restrictions. But you've seen as soon as we can, we have moved away."
Parker on Friday also dismissed a newly released poll showing 30 percent of participants supported the parliamentary protest and 28 percent opposed vaccine mandates. He said that was "completely impossible to reconcile with the fact that over 90 percent of people have had vaccines".
He said the "vast majority" of people know they aren't forced to have vaccines.
"Most people understand that the mandate exists to protect people. You need a mandate in hospital to protect the people in hospital and the people who work there.
"It is the same in rest homes. People have died in their droves overseas in rest homes. You need a mandate there. It's for the protection of people.
"If people choose not to have a vaccine, that is their choice. But they have to bear the consequences of that, and the consequences are that they can't work in a rest home, for example."
