COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has come to the defence of National MP Chris Penk who accepted an anti-vaccine petition.
Penk, MP for Kaipara ki Mahurangi, accepted a petition on Tuesday from Anna Hodgkinson, whose daughter Casey claims to be unable to walk after receiving a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
A Givealittle page was set up for her and $14,000 has been donated. But Givealittle has updated the page with an offering of refunds to those who didn't realise "doctors have not yet conclusively determined" if Casey's symptoms are related to the vaccine.
Hipkins said on Wednesday he "passionately" believes in the "right of every citizen - including those who have very unpopular views - to petition the Parliament".
"I think that's a pretty important right in a democracy."
Hipkins said while it was unlikely he would have accepted the petition - joking that as COVID-19 Response Minister he probably wouldn't have been "particularly well received" - Penk did nothing wrong by accepting it.
"I'm not going to pass judgement on Members of Parliament accepting petitions because I do think it's important that members of the public - even those who have views that we might not agree with - are able to petition the Parliament and ultimately, the court of public opinion is the judge of the validity of those petitions," Hipkins said.
"We live in a free democracy and in a free democracy people are entitled to express unpopular views."
Hodgkinson on Tuesday led about 100 people from the group Silent No More from a "memorial service" at Wellington's Civic Square to Parliament where she delivered the 12,000-strong petition to Penk calling for recognition of vaccine injuries.
The change.org petition calls for any adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine reported to the Centre for Adverse Reaction Monitoring (CARM) to be investigated as "legitimate vaccine injuries and treated as such until conclusively proven otherwise".
Up to February 28, there were 58,135 reactions that had been reported to CARM, more than 2000 of which were minor side effects.
More than 10.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been given in New Zealand. Two deaths have been ruled as likely due to vaccine-induced myocarditis, though they are still before the Coroner. A further 14 deaths are under investigation.
The Silent No More group was denied access to Parliament's forecourt on Tuesday as they didn't lodge a formal request to the Speaker's office to do so, according to Parliament security, so Penk met them at the bottom of the steps next to the cenotaph.
"Parliament is your house, not the politicians'," Penk was reported as telling the crowd. "My local constituent asked me to receive the petition on your behalf and for me as a local Member of Parliament, my duty is to represent my electorate."
Penk came under fire on social media for accepting the petition from Hodgkinson, due to her history of engaging in conspiracy theories.
Hodgkinson, according to Newsroom, was acquainted with Brett Power, who lodged a civil complaint against Health Minister Andrew Little in the High Court in New Plymouth, accusing him of murder over the vaccine rollout.
Power, after filing his papers at the High Court, reportedly tried to storm the offices of the Taranaki Daily News and it's understood Hodgkinson was there too. Power was arrested a few days later in Wellington at the weeks-long protest outside Parliament against vaccine mandates.
COVID-19 vaccine passes and mandates - except for health, disability and aged care workers, along with prison and border staff - end on April 4.
Hipkins said easing the restrictions was a "finely balanced" move.
"There are certainly people who are very nervous about where we sit in our COVID-19 response at the moment. But overall, I think New Zealanders have accepted that we're now in a different phase in our COVID-19 response," he told reporters.
"The people who are nervous in many cases I think are just not getting out and about as opposed to writing to us about it. We're still getting a bit of correspondence about that but the overall correspondence volume has dropped away quite significantly in the last few weeks."
Hipkins, in the past, has faced threats due to his position as COVID-19 Response Minister. In November, he revealed that his Remutaka electorate office had been "the target of repeated and ongoing attacks by anti-vaxxers".
Hipkins said on Tuesday he doesn't let it get to him.
"As a bit of a confession, I have to tell you I've asked not to be told about most of that because otherwise I just think you live your whole life in fear and so I trust those who are dealing with all of that correspondence and all of those issues to alert me if there is something I really need to know about."
