As I said, I love camping, but I can bet you my bottom dollar if I and my family were to pitch a two room Great Outdoors Tent on council land in the middle of a metroplitan area I'd be given a notice of trespass and ask to move on quick smart.
So how do these "freedom Campers" get away with it? Simple - they're protesters. And that means as long as it is peaceful, they have all the rights to remain where they are and protest.
But this raises a number of issues. Firstly there are children involved with the protests and by all accounts these protesters have limited access to ablutions and cleaning areas. So do we not only have a bunch of smelly sickness beneficiaries and Green Party Card Members we also have children living in a situation where disease is a possibility. Now what right minded parent would subject their children to that possibility?
I watched TVNZ interview a number of protesters around the country. I think they provided a fair coverage but what got up my goat was one interviewee who was utterly vehement towards the camera yet acted up for it consistently. Apparently he was a senior member of the protest and spokesman, but all he did was keep telling the reporter and on camera that TVNZ wasn't welcome on his protest site and kept giving the camera the bird. And there was the sickkness beneficiary who didn't really know why he was there, ceded that it had something to do with governments and corporates, and here he was camping in hostile conditions "on the sickness benefit" (for the challenged, having a go at the hand that feeds).
I applaud the stance of these protesters, but to be honest they aren't winning any votes if they are disrupting the lives of ordinary folk, and not to mention the schooling and health of their children. I think there is enough power in the Trespass Act for city councils to issue notices and for the Police to enact those notices. I don't care if it becomes a physical confrontation, move them on to camping grounds where they have services and where they have to pay their way. They're on a free wicket doing what they are doing. Not to mention being a health and safety risk.
