Ōwairaka/Mt Albert tree removal: protest encampment removed for 'breaching' Covid-19 lockdown
Wednesday, 15 April 2020
A camp set up by protesters on Ōwairaka/Mt Albert, has been removed for allegedly breaching Covid-19 level 4 lockdown rules.
The group of tents was set up by protest group Honour the Maunga, who have been occupying the Auckland maunga since November over plans to cut down 345 non-native trees on the mountain.
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority (TMA), which co-governs Ōwairaka/Mt Albert with Auckland Council, plans to replace the trees with about 13,000 native trees and plants.
The TMA said since the level 4 lockdown began, the Honour the Maunga group had been encouraging members to maintain a 'round the clock' presence at Mt Albert by working in surveillance shifts.
**READ MORE:
* Protest group and iwi to stage hui over tree felling plan
* Honour the Maunga slams $1.1 million budget
* Work begins on vehicle-free transformation of Mt Albert**
Paul Majurey, chair of the TMA, said people had been gathering at the encampment and breaching lockdown rules.
'The removal of the tents was a necessary action to protect the health and safety of visitors, staff and contractors as the Covid-19 crisis continues,' Majurey said.
He said the protest group has ignored lockdown rules by remaining active at the encampment, placing themselves and others at risk. 'The authority was forced to take the responsible step of removing the encampment to eliminate the chance of further gatherings and activity not compliant with lockdown rules.'
All tents and marquees and their contents had been securely stored for return to their owners once changes to the alert level allowed that to happen, Majurey said.
'The authority has sent a letter to the protest group outlining the action taken.
'Removal of the encampment is supported by the New Zealand Police, and is supported by relevant legislation. Authority staff will monitor the maunga for any further signs of lockdown rules being breached.'
Anna Radford from Honour the Maunga, said the group had not broken lockdown rules and the TMA should have approached the group first about any concerns.
'We have been there since November, we did the right thing and stood down when level 4 was announced, we left our tents and marquee there because we intend to come back but we have not been there during lockdown, it was clearly unoccupied.'
Radford said she had been up the mountain for exercise and other members had been asked to 'keep an eye on things' while going for walks, but no one was gathering.
'Nothing more sinister. They may have taken our tents but we will be back.'
The region's maunga are owned by the city's iwi and hapu as a result of a 2014 Treaty of Waitangi settlement.
ALERT LEVEL 4 RULES
Police have recently released updated guidelines around Alert Level 4 rules.
- Everyone in New Zealand is to be isolated or quarantined at their current place of residence except as permitted for essential personal movement.
- Exercise is to be done in an outdoor place that can be readily accessed from home and two-metre physical distancing must be maintained.
- Recreation and exercise does not involve swimming, water-based activities (for example, surfing or boating), hunting, tramping, or other activities of a kind that expose participants to danger or may require search and rescue services.
- A child can leave the residence of one joint caregiver to visit or stay at the residence of another joint care-giver (and visit or stay at that residence) if there is a shared bubble arrangement.
- A person can leave their residence to visit or stay at another residence (and visit or stay at that residence) under a shared bubble arrangement if - one person lives alone in one, or both, of those residences; or everyone in one of those residences is a vulnerable person.