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The Tai Tokerau Border Control (TBC) wants to have control of police checkpoints on the southern limits of Northland to help enforce alert level 3 restrictions following new Covid-19 cases in Auckland.
Spokeswoman Nyze Manuel said Things on Tuesday, the group would be monitoring checkpoints on Northland’s southern boundary, following reports that people were “just flooding” on Monday.
Auckland passed Covid-19 Alert Level 3 for 72 hours at midnight Sunday, with the rest of the country moving to Alert Level 2 in light of the new cases.
On Monday, a police spokeswoman said she continued to “communicate with this local group [Tai Tokerau Border Control], as well as other partners as we have done through different alert levels ”.
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Manuel said Things, Tai TBC has only stood up to protect its whakapapa and there is currently no iwi presence at border controls.
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
On Tuesday morning, traffic flowed freely at the Te Hana police checkpoint, unless someone was stopped and detained.
“Our concerns are ultimately these people who have come out of the red zone and have not listened,” Manuel said.
“If one of them carries this virus to the far north, this could be catastrophic for our people.”
He said it was more about informing people and letting the public know where the test stations were.
“If we don’t push to protect our people, no one will.”
TBC will meet with local police before they travel to the Te Hana police border checkpoint on Wednesday, Manuel said.
“If we believe that not everything is at our front door, we will do checks again.”
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
Trucks and cars queue to cross the Northland-Auckland border on the second day of alert level 3 in Auckland.
Tai Tokerau Border Control spokesperson Hone Harawira told RNZ on Tuesday that he was unhappy with some examples of people being able to pass through checkpoints into Northland.
“Everyone who has a boat, everyone who has a caravan should be sent back and sent back, but we are still seeing those kinds of people going into Tai Tokerau,” Harawira told RNZ on Tuesday.
TBC wanted Ngāti Whātua and iwi to have full control of the checkpoints on the southern edge of Northland.
Denise Piper / Things
Mana Movement leader and former Maori Party MP Hone Harawira, police and volunteers set up a checkpoint on the morning of January 28 following a community case in Northland.
“We don’t want these checkpoints to become licensing checks and a guarantee of fitness and registration,” Harawira told RNZ.
Many northerners attended the Maori national touch tournament in Auckland over the weekend and some people attended a Kiwi couples tournament, he said.
“They all came home, tried to get tested, but they were turned down,” Harawira said.
CHRISTEL YARDLEY / THINGS
On Monday there were waits of up to three hours for people to cross the southern border from Auckland to Waikato.
Businesses that need to travel across the alert level limits are urged to register for the new Business Travel Document through MBIE.
Murray Reade, executive director of regional economic development agency Northland Inc, said it was essential that Northland remain “open for business” while Auckland is under Level 3 restrictions, and having the proper document would make travel faster and easier. easy.
“The new MBIE system is designed to keep businesses running and avoid the kind of border disruption that we saw six months ago when Auckland was last at level 3.”
Business travel documents include a QR code that officials will scan at the border.
Abigail Dougherty / Stuff
The Te Hana checkpoint seen from above.
Earlier this year, TBC established the checkpoints in light of new community cases that had recently left the isolation facilities run by the Pullman Hotel, despite the country remaining at Alert Level 1.
Checkpoints were first established in 2020 during level 3 and 4 alert lockouts due to people breaking no-travel rules.
Hone Harawira began executing them at the beginning of alert level 4, turning away visitors, tourists and other non-essential travelers.
The checkpoints were supported by iwi, such as tangata whenua, and Far North Mayor John Carter, but they drew the ire of then-Northland MP Matt King.
At the time, King said some people had found the checkpoints intimidating.
“People have been prevented from doing their legal business, one was a paramedic, and they have been forced to stop and take flyers,” he said.
The police changed the way the checkpoints worked and eventually worked together with iwi to make stops.
