Ngātaki checkpoint defended

Jerry Brown at the Ngātaki checkpoint on Friday - most of those stopped have been 'sweet.' Picture / Peter Jackson

The vast majority of motorists who were stopped at the iwi-led checkpoint on SH1 at Ngātaki, just north of the school, were "sweet," spokesman Jerry Brown said on Friday. And he was offering no apologies to those who weren't.

"We are standing here for the people," Mr Brown said.

"A lot of them are vulnerable. If the virus gets here it will impact the whole community, and if that happens no one is going to come up here and save us. There will be no knight on a white horse.

"We are doing this to keep our people safe."

The few who were not happy to see the Ngāti Kuri/Aupōuri checkpoint should know that it would only remain in place "for a few more days," until the Covid-19 lockdown was reduced to level 2. That will not happen before Monday next week, and many suspect it will be extended.

And they were turning back significant numbers of people who should not have been travelling that far north under the current lockdown rules.

"There have been tourists, people from Whangārei and further away, who were wanting to camp up here," Mr Brown said.

"People with rods and surfboards, who said they were going camping at Spirits Bay. They shouldn't be coming here, and anyway, the camp ground is closed.

"We've been telling them that they've driven past some great beaches to get here, and that this is only going to last a few more days."

The Rarawa Beach road was to be opened to traffic over the weekend, and would perhaps stay open into this week, depending on how people behaved.

Meanwhile last week's claims that all community roadblocks had a police officer present lasted less than a day, police admitting that there was no officer at Ngātaki for a time on Friday. Police Commissioner Andy Coster had told Parliament's epidemic response committee that checkpoints now had a police presence, so were lawful.

There was no police presence at Ngataki when an NZME journalist was told he could not go further north on Friday, although an officer arrived a short time later, or when the Northland Age was there late morning.

******

"This is bullshit. Iwi should not be allowed to stop locals going to Rarawa. Level 3 says you can travel in your region to go fishing off the beach."
That was one social media reaction to the checkpoint on SH1 at Ngataki, in response to news that police last week have escorted three vehicles from Rarawa Beach after the drivers had refused to stop at the checkpoint. Checkpoint 'staff' had followed the vehicles to the beach, where the situation reportedly became heated, and the police were called.
Lockdown level 3 permits travelling to beaches, and fishing from the shore, but only locally.
Others expressed similar sentiments, a Kaitaia man asking why he wasn't allowed into the checkpoint's 'zone,' but those who were supposedly being protected were allowed into his.
"What would happen if they were stopped at Awanui?" he asked.
"If I set up a checkpoint there, and stopped people coming to Kaitaia, it wouldn't last long."