Into the abyss

Anew local documentary claims that hundreds of thousands of Kiwis have been sucked into a vortex of disinformation.

- DANYL MAUCHLAN

Many of the protesters were hippies who thought the vaccine was a plot by international drug companies. Others were Maori activists for whom the government’s Covid response was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Tokoroa chapter of the Mongrel Mob were there, along with several evangelical churches whose members could often be seen kneeling and praying and speaking in tongues.

The Hare Krishnas were there serving vegetarian food and teaching yoga. There were farmers, Instagram influencers, rough sleepers, QAnon activists. All these groups combined and occupied the lawns and forecourt of Wellington’s Parliament grounds last February.

They set up tents, filled the surrounding streets with camper vans, built makeshift showers and public toilets, tore up the sprinkler system when Parliament’s Speaker, Trevor Mallard, turned it onto try to evict them. There was a massage gazebo. Free food. Live bands. A perpetual haze of cannabis smoke hung over the encampment.

They talked about love and freedom and democracy and they burnt their political enemies in effigy, attacked journalists, threw eggs at passing schoolchildren, slung nooses over the trees.

After 24 days, the police evicted them and this turned into a riot. Eighty-seven people were arrested. Forty cops were injured. The protesters set fire to the playground, threw tents and gas canisters onto the blaze and some tried to burn down the Victoria University Law School across the road.