{"id":431900,"date":"2026-05-17T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431900\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:04:09","slug":"jacinda-ardern-aotea-centre-talk-met-by-anti-vaccine-protesters-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/431900\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacinda Ardern Aotea Centre talk met by anti-vaccine protesters in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ardern had been back in the country for promotional tours of her memoir, which won $3000 in prizemoney at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards<\/a> on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Ardern has donated the cash to literacy charity Read New Zealand Te Pou Muramura.<\/p>\n

\"DameDame Jacinda Ardern’s address at the 2026 Auckland Writers Festival was met with protest. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Anti-mandate, conspiracy theory and alternative media group Counterspin Media livestreamed the demonstration on Facebook, where one protester claimed to have been pushed to the ground by a festivalgoer.<\/p>\n

A witness said the incident appeared unprovoked and followed an argument about harm caused by the Covid vaccine.<\/p>\n

Another protester claimed a festival attendee tore a placard from their hands.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-vaccineAnti-vaccine activists protesting Dame Jacinda Ardern’s appearance at the Auckland Writers Festival. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

There was a small police and security presence at the event.<\/p>\n

Foot traffic slowed after the start of the presentation and protesters packed their signs and left shortly after.<\/p>\n

Police earlier told the Herald they were aware of the writers\u2019 event and would monitor and \u201cdeal with any issues if they arise\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters outside Auckland’s Aotea Centre. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Counterspin Media posted to its Facebook page last week, notifying of three pop-up protests, as well as an after-party. <\/p>\n

The post included the following wording: \u201c5:30pm SHARP!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPop-up team and volunteers assemble with banners + signs outside Aotea Centre Queen St front entrance to greet attendees queuing for the Jacinda Ardern event in the Aotea Centre\u2019s Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ardern had been back in the country for promotional tours of her memoir, which won $3000 in prizemoney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[32600,221115,120099,27605,13176,190399,665,51,3595,1550,2947,29059,5131,78,13175,47365,111,43,139,69,25394,25266,10505,11227,5911,40555],"class_list":["post-431900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-activists","tag-antivaccine","tag-aotea","tag-appearance","tag-ardern","tag-arderns","tag-around","tag-auckland","tag-by","tag-centre","tag-dame","tag-descended","tag-festival","tag-in","tag-jacinda","tag-met","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-square","tag-talk","tag-tonight","tag-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}