Some 5000 people have marched in an anti-lockdown protest through Tāmaki today; the third such protest since the country went into lockdown almost two and a half months ago, on August 17th.
The group descended through Newmarket’s Khyber Pass and onto the Auckland Domain carrying signs that questioned the government’s vaccination programme and the broader lockdown strategy.
"Question the injection" one read, another with "I am not a science experiment" was carried by three men.
Among the group were those purporting to be business owners championing the Free2Trade hashtag that has become increasingly popular at the protests.
Police supervised the protest but did not intervene.
The event was again coordinated by the ‘Freedom and Rights Coalition’, a group founded by Destiny Church Pastor Brian Tamaki and championed by Peter Mortlock of City Impact Church.
Neither appeared to be in attendance but Brian Tamaki's wife Hannah Tamaki took to the stage in his absence.
"My husband is heartbroken he can't be here today," Hannah Tamaki said.
She said she had to ‘beg’ her husband not to come in order to avoid arrest, as was the case after the second such protest on October 6th.
Hannah Tamaki told a mostly unmasked audience that residents in Auckland were 'being held prisoner'.
‘I’ve had a gutsful of not being able to see my other children and mokopuna' she said.
Tamaki said she did not care if people were vaccinated or not, but that they should have the ‘freedom of choice’.
Today's protest comes amid a record for Covid-19 cases in Aotearoa.
160 cases, 151 of which were in Auckland were announced by the Ministry of Health in a 1pm statement.
