Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Rob Rattenbury: Freedom comes with responsibilities

Rotorua Daily Post
10 Apr, 2022 10:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Police officers and protesters clash during Parliament demonstration. Video / Supplied


OPINION

It could be assumed that in New Zealand, the fourth safest democracy in the world in 2021, freedom is everywhere.

Apparently not according to many disparate and unhappy groups of people in this country.

The country, for weeks, watched as several thousand Kiwis have mobbed together to assert their loss of freedom in various parts of Aotearoa, particularly in Wellington at Parliament recently, the very seat of our safe democracy.

A haven for freedom.

Open up the latest news from Whanganui

Get daily headlines from the Whanganui region straight to your inbox.
Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Freedom is a word that means many things to different people. To me, it means living in my beautiful homeland safely, without the prospect of war, enjoying my rights and responsibilities as I personally choose.

I am free to do what I wish, within reason.

As long as I do not impinge upon the freedoms of others in my community I am pretty much left to just get on with things.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Live my life as I wish according to my personal values and views. Not hard, really.

There are some areas in life where we are not free to do as we wish.

Discover more

Rob Rattenbury: Marriage has come a long way since the 70s

13 Mar 08:00 PM

Rob Rattenbury: Why America is set to change over the coming years

27 Feb 04:00 PM

In this country, we all have to drive on the left side of the road. No ifs and buts, we must.

That is the law, in place to keep us all safe. No one I know disagrees with that or purposely disobeys that rule.

We are not free to wander uptown naked. We can do it, but it is likely someone will take us aside and point out to us that this behaviour is, at the least, inappropriate.

We might even have to talk to a judge about it.

Some would argue it is their body, they should be allowed to. They maybe do not understand that others may find their behaviour offensive.

As we all watched the mob express their freedoms by abusing and threatening others on the streets around Parliament for having the freedom to wear masks to protect themselves and others, most of us would have seen the wrong-headedness of their actions.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The fact that these people were free to be able to behave the way they did argues against their cause, whatever that may have been.

In most places in the world, the official response would have been quick and very brutal. Not in little old Welly.

The local cops rolled up, tried a few tactics, decided that this was too dangerous bearing in mind the makeup of the crowd including young children and older people, so settled for the long game.

Let's wait them out. Only in New Zealand.

Photos of police doling out lollies, laughing and chatting with the mob, trying to keep all safe flashed around the world showing a tolerant society.

Some would say a little too tolerant.

As time drifted by, the loos backed up, the ground became a fetid swamp and sickness began to take its toll. Many drifted away to fight another day.

The faceless leaders of some of the groups present also abandoned ship when they realised they had nothing further to gain. They left their deluded followers to their fate.

I concede that some in the mob held sincere opinions, however wrong, about their freedoms being impinged. The thought process that made this happen is interesting.

New Zealanders have never been compelled to be vaccinated by law.

It has been left as a choice to our population, at least 94 per cent of the population who qualified chose to exercise that choice.

This majority did this for their own protection and for the protection of others, a community responsibility shared. Something New Zealanders should be very proud of.

Some of those who chose not to be vaccinated suffered the consequences of their decision.

They lost jobs and maybe homes. These people chose this course, knowing the possible outcomes.

Rob Rattenbury. Photo / NZME
Rob Rattenbury. Photo / NZME

How then has their freedom been taken from them?

How has a Government who, overall, managed the Covid pandemic very well compared to other governments, taken freedoms away from New Zealanders?

These people took their own freedoms away.

Let's be honest - no one likes the mandates.

Most have ended with our borders slowly re-opening to the world and us all learning to live with some form of endemic Covid-19 together with yet another annual vaccination going forward.

But losing freedoms? Really?

Freedom includes various rights, but with rights, come responsibilities - to ourselves and others. Most people understand this but a few simply cannot.

The causes displayed in the Wellington mob were wide-ranging with some strange bed-fellows sharing time together.

It seemed every unhappy soul in the country got together for a major whinge. Many with very strange agendas and views, many perhaps simply not well.

Watching the mob fight each other at times said it all, really.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Departing councillor: ‘Social media abuse has got out of hand’

Whanganui Chronicle

Vintage motorcycle to honour late son stolen in Aramoho

Whanganui Chronicle

Treading water: No decision on Whanganui East Pool despite recommendations


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Recommended for you

Should teen rapist be sentenced as a youth he was at the time, or the adult he is now?
New Zealand

Should teen rapist be sentenced as a youth he was at the time, or the adult he is now?

Tactix and Pulse clash in ANZ Premiership elimination final
Netball

Tactix and Pulse clash in ANZ Premiership elimination final

Financial mentors warn of $300m debt risk in family payment changes
Politics

Financial mentors warn of $300m debt risk in family payment changes

Halasima scores stunning solo match-winning try to beat Knights
Warriors

Halasima scores stunning solo match-winning try to beat Knights

All Black legend shares new health update after shock gym collapse
Sport

All Black legend shares new health update after shock gym collapse

AK-47, heroin and explosives: The surprise stash inside former teen killer's home
Crime

AK-47, heroin and explosives: The surprise stash inside former teen killer's home



Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Departing councillor: ‘Social media abuse has got out of hand’
Whanganui Chronicle

Departing councillor: ‘Social media abuse has got out of hand’

Long-serving Whanganui district councillor Jenny Duncan is calling it quits.

19 Jul 10:03 PM
Vintage motorcycle to honour late son stolen in Aramoho
Whanganui Chronicle

Vintage motorcycle to honour late son stolen in Aramoho

18 Jul 06:00 PM
Treading water: No decision on Whanganui East Pool despite recommendations
Whanganui Chronicle

Treading water: No decision on Whanganui East Pool despite recommendations

18 Jul 06:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search