Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - MINI: What Is It Like Being At The Parliament Protests?

Episode Date: March 2, 2022

We spoke to Nick James, a reporter for the NZ Herald who has been down there watching it all unfold. He said it's been the most chaotic thing he's witnessed and has never seen anything like it before.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Yesterday you would have seen the scenes you'll see this morning online. Violence erupted, fires breaking out in Parliament lawns, dramatic conflict between the protesters and the New Zealand Police. And someone who was there to witness it and is still there today is Nick James from the New Zealand Herald. Nick James, welcome. Hi guys, how are you?

Yeah, Jono Pryor, Ben Boyce. Full names, official. Welcome. Now we understand you're on Old Man Mallard's balcony at Parliament. Yes, that's the one, yeah. Does Trevor know you're on his balcony and are there sprinklers there because he'll turn them on?

Yeah, I think he's pretty aware. I'm sort of accompanied by around, I don't know, maybe five or six other journos. So I don't think the sprinklers are going on any time soon at the moment. So yesterday you were there when everything was going down with the riot police, with the fires, with the violence and all that happening. I mean, it must be a really, really scary experience to be sort of witnessing. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I sort of was there from 5am yesterday and then sort of finished up around 7 o'clock last night. I've never seen anything like it. It was the most chaotic scenes I think I've ever seen. I thought in the morning when we saw, you know, the police move in on the protesters and see some pepper spray and all that stuff, I was like, you know, that was unbelievable to see. And then around sort of 3 o'clock, this fire started erupting from Parliament's front lawn. It was unbelievable, really

and it just got more and more chaotic from there. On the scale of all of us panic buying toilet paper to Juliet and her friends at R&V, how chaotic is it? What's the scale? Sort of talking a ten? I would say it's a ten.

Yeah, and I mean just looking out now, that reflects that. I mean, I'm just looking at a sea of destroyed tents and marquees that have just, that still cover Parliament's front lawn. You wouldn't even recognise at the moment, you know, if you'd visited a month ago sort of thing. It's just another tip. It's a rubbish tip, essentially.

Yeah, we were saying this morning on the show that no matter what your political views are or who you support or whatever, it was just sad. It was sad for New Zealand to see it coming to this and to see the police out there in the riot gear and see what was happening and the fires and pepper spray, as you say. It was just a sad scene to have all over the news last night. Yeah, and I mean, I think police reflected that. And obviously, you know, they had tried for three weeks, it came to three weeks of sort of trying, asking these people to leave, not really taking any sort of hard measures on them and I guess it sort of just got to that crunch point where things just exploded really and when they, it kicked off. As Barry Soper calls him, the police commissioner, wonderful cuddles Costa.

He gave them the chance, didn't he? He gave them the chance to leave. And it seems like the ones who are still going on the news last night, they weren't at the protests for genuine reasons like many people were in the beginning who were actually like, you know, I've lost my job. I'm anti-mandate. I'm not necessarily anti-vax. Who were that group that was still lighting fires and throwing bricks at the police? Yeah, well, I guess that's the million-dollar question, really.

I mean, that's the speculation that, you know, there was a few people that just were there really to cause trouble. They just, yeah, they were there to throw bricks, to start fires, to set off fireworks, to, you know, cause anarchy, really. And, yeah, you know, you could definitely see sort of walking around yesterday. I mean, I remember seeing a protester sort of crying and was like, this isn't what we were here for, whatever. But, like, yeah, it's just, yeah, there definitely seems to be there was some some

people that just wanted to um cause a riot essentially what's there today obviously you said there's uh the lawn and everything there's a lot of rubbish and everything everywhere but there's a huge police presence still today there are people outside parliament i mean what's going on this morning so essentially i've walked around sort of the streets that the protesters previously occupied, and there's pretty much no protesters around. They're not anywhere near, but there's a huge police presence still. You know, there's police with dogs as well, just sort of walking around the perimeter. And there's some police as well, just sort of walking around nearby Wellington streets, I guess, just trying to sort of reassure Wellingtonians that it's a safe place to walk if they're sort of coming from a train station

or going to school or that sort of thing. Oh, well, thanks, Nick. Well, you keep safe down there. I'm glad you are safe. It seems like it's over for the most part now, which is a good thing. And geez, old Mallard's going to have to get that grass seed out, isn't he, on the front lawn?

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, he's got a lot of work on his hands. Let's put that netting over the top too so the sparrows don't start, you know. You know what it's like, Ben, it's a nightmare.

Exactly. I tried two or three times and ended up getting AstroTurf because it was too tough for me. Maybe you should tell Trevor he could

look at the AstroTurf option. It's expensive, but you know. No maintenance. Yeah, exactly. Good on you, Nick. Thank you so much

for your time. You keep well. No worries. Thanks so much for having me. Jono and Ben, brought to you by Resene, New Zealand's

most trusted paint. Kiwi made since 1946.