The beginning of the Dig In At Marsden protest, which passed the 100-day milestone on Tuesday. Photo / Tania Whyte
One-hundred days have passed since the protest against the closure of Marsden Point began. The Advocate marked the anniversary with an article that copped flak for its lack of context. Journalist Karina Cooper now turns a sharp eye to the 100-day anniversary, disinformation and the role of the media.
On April 10, the base of Marsden Point was a hub of activity as around 90 people flocked to the site in their cars stickered with slogans, such as "stop the demolition" and "save our refinery", in reaction to the oil refinery's March 31 closure.
Other placards seen at the protest's beginning showed some links to the movement protesting public health measures intend to protect against Covid-19 - signs claiming one million Kiwis were not jabbed and "it's not about health it's about control".
It's a claim at odds with Ministry of Health vaccination data showing only 154,396 New Zealanders have yet to follow public health advice - supported by medical and scientific experts - and get the jab.
As the days drew on and autumn turned to winter, the numbers of those who came to protest at Camp Spearhead in Marsden Point thinned as many packed their gear into cars and hit the road south, leaving only a handful.
The Advocate visited to find those who stayed were a mix of locals and those who had left homes in other regions to travel north in campervans to the mothballed refinery's base.
Since April 1, the owner of the refinery - Channel Infrastructure - began work to convert the site into an import-only fuel terminal, ending New Zealand's importation of crude oil.
The protest grew out of a call from anti-mandate activist Brad Flutey for people to occupy the former Marsden Point Oil Refinery, demanding it reopen.
Flutey was Social Credit's Northland candidate in the 2020 general election before becoming a campaigner against Covid-19 mitigation efforts. He was arrested in January after refusing to wear a mask at a liquor store and awaits a full-day court hearing in August on charges related to the incident.
He was arrested again at the Parliament protest, with accusations he was encouraging protesters to behave in a manner likely to cause violence on February 26. Those charges were later dropped.
Since returning to Northland, Flutey has been at the centre of this much smaller protest - staying the course as numbers dwindled.
Among those who stayed were Tauranga's Kiwi Patriot and Sue, who hit the road north after seeing Flutey speaking online.
The self-styled independent journalists contribute to the At Weeks End News, which is hosted on video channels popular with the Far Right and free of the fact-checking systems introduced by mainstream social media companies.
Popular topics include touchstone issues for the Parliament protest movement such as vaccine injury conspiracies and Three Waters reform.
One group member said he had been on the road for two years with his partner, as they prefer the nomadic lifestyle.
Camp Spearhead was simply an extension of this lifestyle, which he said offered him experiences and human connection ahead of currency and the nine-to-five grind.
When the Advocate mentioned rumours that called them "dole bludgers", Flutey bellowed with laughter.
While he said those protesting would be the last to rely on government money, he also framed "unemployed" as a person who managed to find extra time to make something from their passion. On that basis, then yeah - maybe they all were, he said.
For his part, Flutey described himself as an oyster mushroom farmer.
Flutey said the camp got by with the support of about 40 people who provided fruit and vegetables to the handful of protesters remaining, and the use of freezers to store food. They had also been given fuel cards.
Support was important to the group, to the extent they recorded the number of toots sounded by passing cars when protesting on State Highway 1. A fridge door inside the camp's makeshift shelter showed 904 toots in one hour.
And, every now and again, some people stopped to chat about the purpose of the protest.
It's an idyllic spot for a protest that, they say, has had its gruelling moments. There's Marsden Point Beach or the nearby wharf for fishing. One member said the Ruakākā Recreation Centre had allowed the use of the gym and other facilities.
For those hundreds of kilometres from home, there were occasional trips home - or visits by family.
Dinner time within the reinforced walls of their tent, dubbed the "brain hub", often doubles as a brainstorming session. The group say being next to each other "brings out the brilliance".
Their goal is to restore oil processing at the site, which they claim would give New Zealand energy independence and a secure fuel supply. In Flutey's view, it would provide greater security from geopolitical shocks.
It's a claim that looks past New Zealand's historical reliance on imports, as Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods has said. She has also pointed to independent expert advice that a 100 per cent fuel import model was more resilient to disruption scenarios.
The Advocate's original coverage of this story copped criticism for a lack of context around Flutey, the group and the claims they made.
Kate Hannah, lead researcher for The Disinformation Project - part of the academic Centre of Excellence, Te Punaha Matatini, said a lack of context - as in the Advocate's original publication - could damage community trust in institutions such as the media.
"Remembering that media is an institution that people should feel trustworthy about, anything that might signal to some people that media doesn't have their back is quite worrying."
She said New Zealanders tended to take people at face value but needed to become more astute as "we're in a really different political environment than anything we've had before".
"That's a really good, kind cultural characteristic but in the circumstances we're in now there does have to be a little bit more questioning."
One issue media now faced was dealing with people who are "on one level completely ordinary people" but were leading a politically and ideologically motivated cause, she said.
"We don't have a media culture or history here in Aotearoa of combativeness to ordinary citizens," she said.
To say to someone who felt like an ordinary guy 'what's your real motivation here?' felt "intrusive" and "strange", holding them to account how you would a politician, Hannah said.
She said this was particularly the case when people had found a place they felt they belonged and were contributing in a way that felt meaningful to themselves and society.
Hannah said the people rallying around Flutey had found a sense of belonging, purpose and meaning.
"We can't be like, you know, 'that's not right' because they've got a social network, access to social capital … including actual capital like food and support and care in physical and emotional forms.
"They've got all of the features of what a healthy, functioning social network looks like but it's based on a really negative exclusionary sense of otherness – so it can't include everybody.
"That's why they feel so strongly identified in that space and we can't just turn up and say 'hey you're wrong' because they have a sense of community."
Ignoring or rejecting that community also didn't work because they included neighbours and whānau.
"We're a small country, we all know each other, we're all interconnected and giving up on them isn't an option."
She said the next phase of the pandemic was more about living with Covid and would mean everyone in the country needed to learn again how to live with each other.
"We need to keep our eyes on the prize – us all being back to being able to talk to each other and make sense."
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