Coronavirus: NZ anti-mandate protesters drive towards police, hurl faeces in second week of stand-off

One protester drove a car towards a New Zealand police line, narrowly avoiding officers, while other protesters sprayed officers with a stinging substance, police said on Tuesday, as they tightened a cordon around a convoy that has been camped outside Parliament for two weeks. The clashes in the capital of Wellington came a day after police reported that some of the protesters had thrown human faeces at them. Police Assistant Commissioner Richard Chambers told reporters the actions of some of the protesters, who oppose coronavirus vaccine mandates, were unacceptable and would be dealt with assertively. “Our focus remains on opening the roads up to Wellingtonians and doing our absolute best to restore peaceful protest,” Chambers said. “The behaviour of a certain group within the protest community is absolutely disgraceful.” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said protesters had taken things too far and needed to return home. “What’s happening in Wellington is wrong,” she said. The latest clashes began after about 250 officers and staff arrived at dawn and used forklifts to move concrete barriers into a tighter cordon around the encampment, where hundreds of cars and trucks remain blocking city streets. Police have used the barriers this week to allow protest cars to leave but none to enter. Video posted online shows a white car driving the wrong way down a one-way street toward a group of officers who quickly get out of the way while people shout. The vehicle comes to a stop at the police line and several officers climb inside and pull out the driver. Police said the officers had been lucky to escape injury after the car stopped just short of colliding with them. They said they had arrested one person for driving in a dangerous manner and two others for obstructing police. Chambers said the three officers who were sprayed with the unknown stinging substance had been treated at a hospital and were recovering well. The protest, which began when a convoy of cars and trucks drove to Parliament, was inspired by similar protests in Canada. Protesters have been well organised, setting up tents on the lawns outside Parliament and trucking in portable toilets, crates of donated food, and bales of straw to lay down when the grass turned to mud after Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard turned on the sprinklers and blasted Barry Manilow tunes in a failed effort to make them leave. Protesters have even dug a vegetable garden, set up a day care tent, and assembled makeshift showers as they signal their intent to stay for a long time. New Zealand has mandated that certain workers get vaccinated against Covid-19, including teachers, doctors, nurses, police and personnel. A vaccine pass is also required to enter most stores and restaurants. The protests come as New Zealand experiences its first big Covid-19 outbreak, which has been fuelled by the Omicron variant. Daily case numbers jumped to a new high of more than 2,800 on Tuesday, although only a single patient was hospitalised in an intensive care unit. About 77 per cent of the population is vaccinated. Since the beginning of the pandemic, New Zealand has reported just 56 virus deaths among its population of 5 million, after it imposed strict border controls and lockdowns to eliminate earlier outbreaks. Ardern said earlier this week she plans to begin easing virus mandates and restrictions once the peak of the current outbreak has passed. South Korea approves extra budget amid largest Covid wave South Korea’s parliament passed a larger-than-planned first extra budget of the year as the government tries to shore up parts of the economy worst hit by the nation’s biggest coronavirus outbreak of the pandemic. The 16.9 trillion won (US$14.2 billion) budget, approved by parliament late Monday, is aimed at compensating losses to businesses that have been labouring under some of the strictest conditions since Covid-19 erupted, as virus cases rose from thousands a day to over a 100,000. The government had initially proposed a 14 trillion won plan. No additional bonds will be issued other than the initially planned 11.3 trillion won due to considerations for markets and credit ratings, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. From South Korea to Singapore, Omicron wave pushes cases to record highs The highly contagious Omicron variant of the virus is continuing to sweep across South Korea. While the strain is considered to be less severe than predecessors, it is forcing the government to ratchet up quarantine measures and threatens to weigh on first-quarter economic growth. The latest extra budget is the seventh since the pandemic began as President Moon Jae-in’s spending measures push up the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 50.1 per cent from 36 per cent when he was elected in 2017. Moon will step down in May after a presidential election early next month. More than 90 per cent of the funds will be used to provide payments to small-scale merchants and micro businesses, while the remainder will go to support medical efforts to deal with the pandemic. The extra budgets have been pivotal in shoring up growth through the pandemic, helping the economy to expand 4 per cent last year. Private spending has also remained resilient amid multiple waves of the virus, with consumers turning to online shopping as they learn to live alongside Covid-19. The hit from the virus is falling heavily on businesses with their pain exacerbated by higher borrowing costs as the Bank of Korea hiked its benchmark interest rate to pre-pandemic levels in an effort to rein in inflation. Reporting by AP, Bloomberg