Covid 19 coronavirus: Checkpoints to return, iwi group says

Fourteen close contacts of the Northland community case have tested negative, with three more contacts waiting for results. Video / Adam Pearse

Covid checkpoints will be set up on Northland roads following a positive case of the virus' more contagious South African variant, according to the group behind last year's road blocks.

Rueben Taipari, Tai Tokerau Border Control regional coordinator, said the location and timing of checkpoints had yet to be confirmed.

The group had to act because the government was not doing enough to protect the vulnerable, he said.

Tai Tokerau Border Control volunteers hand out Covid-19 leaflets at an iwi-run checkpoint in Kaikohe during level 3. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It was not immediately clear whether police were on board with the self-declared border control group's plans.

During levels 3 and 4 police worked with the iwi group to enforce lockdown travel rules, but police have not previously supported checkpoints at lower alert levels.

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Taipari, of Ahipara, said the group met last night to discuss plans to deal with the threat posed to Northlanders of the new community case.

"We've been in touch with the police, iwi and health authorities, and we intend standing up checkpoints in key points across the North to protect our old people and everyone else in the north,'' he said.

"We're disappointed that government has not already initiated plans to protect kaumātua and kuia in the north and Māori people in general, who comprise some of the most at-risk groups to the latest virulent strain," Taipari said.

An official Covid checkpoint on State Highway 1 north of Te Hana during the Auckland lockdown in August. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Nyze Porter, logistics coordinator for Tai Tokerau Border Control, said iwi were already taking steps in case the virus had spread but the government wasn't playing its part.

''Our tangihanga are under review, our kōhanga may be closing, government departments are moving to protect their staff, iwi are initiating work-from-home strategies, and plans for Waitangi may have to be shelved, but government is doing nothing to protect our most vulnerable whānau," she said.

Taipari said the group would keep police, iwi and health authorities informed of its plans and looked forward to their support.

Former Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira set up Tai Tokerau Border Control during last year's nationwide lockdown due to motorists flouting the no-travel rules and what some Northland iwi saw as a lax response from the authorities.

Checkpoints were set up at various locations including the Far North ''border'' on SH1 at Waiomio, Kaeo Hill, Kaikohe, Waitangi, the north side of the Mangamukas, Ngataki, the Hokianga ferry and the road to Panguru.

The checkpoints were controversial — former Northland MP Matt King called them illegal and demanded the police dismantle them — but they were also credited with reducing the spread of the virus in Northland and East Cape, where local iwi were the first to set up road blocks.

Police eventually joined forces with iwi volunteers at some checkpoints, though only until level 3 was lifted.

During the Auckland lockdown the police and Defence Force set up their own roadblocks along the city's boundaries.

Police have been asked for comment.