FOR THE GOOD OF SOCIETY

The protesters filled the grounds of Parliament. They spilled down the driveway and out the main gates. At the front of the crowd, people pressed up against the security barriers across the forecourt and chanted “You serveus” at the Beehive. They threw tennis balls inscribed with threatening messages at the press gallery journalists.

But the people on the outskirts of the demonstration were more relaxed. It was an uncharacteristically warm day in central Wellington, so hundreds of protesters simply sat under the trees on the parliamentary lawn watching their kids have fun on the new playground. Others stood on Molesworth St handing out anti-vax flyers to the appalled public servants hurrying past. Several chapters of the Mongrel Mob were there, along with the Nomads and Head Hunters. They parked their bikes outside the main entrance to Parliament and a group of patched members sat nearby, in the shade of the war memorial, fanning themselves with conspiracy-theory leaflets.

There were protesters waving Trump 2020 and QAnon flags, but the people I interviewed were mostly Māori who were angry about the vaccine mandates, or they were Pākehā New Age types worried about the vaccines themselves. They connected the Pfizer vaccine to fluoride in the