Hipango entered Parliament in 2017 after winning the Whanganui seat. She wasn\u2019t able to retain the seat in 2020 but returned as a list MP when National\u2019s Nick Smith resigned in 2021. <\/p>\n
In 2023, Hipango ran unsuccessfully as National\u2019s first candidate in a M\u0101ori electorate – Te Tai Hau\u0101uru – since the party last contested the seats in 2002.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Hipango was told off by National leader Christopher Luxon for attending a Voices For Freedom anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protest in Whanganui before posting messages of support on social media. <\/p>\n
Former National MP Harete Hipango landed herself in hot water in 2022 for attending a Voices For Freedom protest. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n
Hipango, then-National\u2019s spokeswoman for Oranga Tamariki, Wh\u0101nau Ora and M\u0101ori Development, later removed the social media post.<\/p>\n
Luxon said he had spoken with Hipango and conveyed how Voices For Freedom\u2019s views didn\u2019t align with the National Party\u2019s. <\/p>\n
Later in January of that year, Hipango was caught out instructing a staffer to edit her Wikipedia page by removing controversies from her biography.<\/p>\n
Hipango will be one of about 280 party members registered to take part in NZ First\u2019s conference, held over two days in Palmerston North. <\/p>\n
Party president Julian Paul began proceedings, pointing out the audience\u2019s age ranged between 16 and 91. Many identified themselves as first-time conference attendees. <\/p>\n
Peters, introduced by de facto deputy leader Shane Jones as the \u201cchampion of major victory in 2026\u2033, began his address in typical fashion with criticism of the media. <\/p>\n
He slammed the NZ Herald for an article this morning about byelections, which he claimed omitted NZ First\u2019s success in previous byelections. The article was in fact run by another publication. <\/p>\n
NZ First leader Winston Peters criticised both parties on the left and right for their messages during the 2023 election campaign. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
He noted the article, which examined byelections since the adoption of MMP in 1996, did not include his victory in the Tauranga byelection in \u201c1983\u2033. The byelection was held in 1993. <\/p>\n
Moving on, Peters lamented New Zealand\u2019s economic and social challenges as he sought to convey the importance of the party\u2019s conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still at the inflection point before real improvement and better future years.\u201d <\/p>\n
He took a shot at both leaders of Labour and National, describing Chris Hipkins as the \u201cguy with the sausage roll\u201d and Christopher Luxon as \u201ceating ice cream most of the time\u201d. <\/p>\n
While he lambasted Labour\u2019s promises to fix the economy having \u201cblown the country into massive debt\u201d, Peters also criticised \u201cthose in Parliament on the right\u201d for asking the public to \u201celect us and we will fix it\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the tragedy. If they ever knew how bad things were, they\u2019ll have never said that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey would say we could begin to fix it, but it\u2019ll take time. It\u2019ll take years, maybe decades to turn it around wholly … but it would never have been the case where you promised to fix it within three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters claimed NZ First had never been so prepared for the \u201cgreatest part of its future\u201d, while acknowledging it had required \u201chard graft\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been enormously difficult work to put New Zealand First out there and to not have to always defend yourself while you\u2019re promoting plain, common sense ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite it being Peters\u2019 opening address, he finished by encouraging supporters to prepare for next year\u2019s conference. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlease go home and talk to your supporters, to all your friends who work with you back home and say, \u2018Get ready for convention 2026 and onwards to a major massive political victory\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Remits, policy proposals for the upcoming election campaign, will be discussed and voted on throughout today and tomorrow. <\/p>\n
The 55 remits feature policies central to NZ First\u2019s core principles, including removing Treaty of Waitangi references, developing a migration strategy, legal protection to use natural health products, axing the Waitangi Tribunal, reforming local government, providing affordable energy and supporting regional development.<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hipango entered Parliament in 2017 after winning the Whanganui seat. She wasn\u2019t able to retain the seat in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1888,2740,6369,6370,6371,1329,6368,3556,111,43,139,69,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-4763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-first","9":"tag-former","10":"tag-harete","11":"tag-hipango","12":"tag-joins","13":"tag-member","14":"tag-mp","15":"tag-national","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newzealand","19":"tag-nz","20":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763","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=4763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}