2022 Wellington protest

The 2022 Wellington protest was an anti-mandate and anti-lockdown occupation of the grounds of Parliament House and Molesworth Street in Central Wellington during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The occupation spring boarded off the New Zealand Convoy 2022, a mass convoy of vehicles that made its way from the top of the North Island and the bottom of the South Island to Parliament starting on Waitangi Day (6 February 2022) and arriving three days later on 9 February. The occupation lasted just over three weeks. At its peak, the protest spread over a large area of Thorndon and into Pipitea with approximately 1,000 participants. Protesters blockaded areas around the parliamentary grounds with their vehicles and occupied the lawn and surrounding areas in tents. Some associated with the protests harassed bystanders, including children walking to and from school, and disrupted local businesses. The protest was forcibly ended by police on 2 March 2022, and the protesters had none of their demands met by the Government.

The protesters were a mixed group, but the majority protested the COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates in New Zealand, while some identified with far-right politics such as Trumpism, white nationalism, and Christian fundamentalism. The protest methods ranged from peaceful to increasingly violent. There were videos of protesters skirmishing with and attacking police, and also several instances of some of them harassing and physically assaulting schoolchildren (mostly from Wellington Girls' College) for wearing masks. Some protesters hung nooses from trees and made threats to lynch politicians, such as Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and pregnant MP Steph Lewis. Far-right groups involved in the protests included the fundamentalist Destiny Church led by Brian Tamaki, the ultraconservative anti-immigration New Conservative Party, neo-Nazi organisation Action Zealandia, and the anti-vaccine groups "Voices for Freedom", among others. Other protesters erected a makeshift shower facility beside the Cenotaph. On 21 February, protesters threw their own faeces at police. Antisemitism was reported to be "rife" within the protests, with the Parliamentary grounds vandalised with swastikas, protesters misappropriating yellow stars, and messages targeting Jews written on car windows. There were also several reports of sexual assault from within the protest grounds.

Despite the disruption to Wellingtonians, the police initially took a 'light-handed' approach to protesters. Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis suggested the police did not want to escalate the situation. As health and safety issues became an issue, police began to take action. Towards the end, some protesters turned violent and injured 40 police officers, putting eight of them in hospital. However, they failed to secure the removal of vaccine mandates or achieve any other demands. Eventually police forcibly removed the protesters, which left the parliamentary grounds covered in rubbish, including destroyed tents, hay, and human excrement. Arson was committed while protesters were being evicted, causing damage estimated in the millions.

The protests came during the most widespread outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand since the pandemic began, with up to 23,180 daily recorded community cases of the Omicron variant by the end of the three week protest.