{"id":602300,"date":"2026-09-16T16:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602300\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T16:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T16:18:13","slug":"election-2026-national-hoarding-targeted-in-mt-albert-arson-attack-police-investigating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602300\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: National hoarding targeted in Mt Albert arson attack, police investigating"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are treating the circumstances as suspicious, and investigations will be ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos taken by a Herald photographer show the burned remnants of the National Party election hoarding. Those of rival parties were untouched. <\/p>\n

\"AnAn election hoarding on the intersection of Selcourt Rd and New North Rd, Mt Albert, has been damaged after it was set on fire. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Helen White currently holds the highly contested electorate, with Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong now vying for its seat alongside long-time National list MP Melissa Lee.<\/p>\n

A National Party spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics while the matter was under police investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur campaigns are run by hardworking volunteers who are giving up their free time to make sure voters know that National is fixing the basics and building the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week a 43-year-old man was arrested and charged with four counts of wilful damage over a spate of vandalism targeting political billboards in Tauranga.<\/p>\n

Area manager Senior Sergeant Shannon Clifford said 30 hoardings of various kinds were damaged in a two-hour period across P\u0101p\u0101moa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage in some cases is significant and, unfortunately, that\u2019s an unnecessary cost for the people who own them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t tolerate this illegal and destructive behaviour in our community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a warning to anyone wanting to damage or deface hoardings \u2013 actions have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice said they are treating the circumstances as suspicious and investigations are ongoing. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

Signs for different electoral candidates and parties were torn apart, defaced and graffitied.<\/p>\n

Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell said he was aware of sign damage in Greerton, P\u0101p\u0101moa, Matua and Bellevue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the offenders] might not like our political party or other political parties, but at the end of the day, this is a democracy, and people have a right to put forward their case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are young kids who are driven around and walk around town every day, and they\u2019re having to see this and be exposed to it. I think it\u2019s pretty disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Damaged election signs in P\u0101p\u0101moa.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer took to social media after a racist slur was scrawled across her election billboard.<\/a><\/p>\n

She posted a photo that appeared to show the N-word spray-painted across the sign in white.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can handle being defaced … as long as you all get enrolled, vote and get this govt out,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

She claimed there was \u201ca correlation between the Govt we have and the behaviour emboldened by them\u201d, adding some of that behaviour was now \u201cplaying out here\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are treating the circumstances as suspicious, and investigations will be ongoing.\u201d Photos taken by a Herald photographer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,10049,53,89,3952,36192,5903,2079,6931,78,296,17709,12898,10048,3556,111,43,139,69,6507,675,1458,58455],"class_list":["post-602300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-albert","tag-arson","tag-attack","tag-aucklands","tag-deliberately","tag-election","tag-fire","tag-hoarding","tag-in","tag-into","tag-investigating","tag-investigation","tag-mt","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overnight","tag-police","tag-targeted","tag-underway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602300","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=602300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}