{"id":633098,"date":"2026-10-17T04:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T04:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633098\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T04:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T04:14:09","slug":"election-2026-kiri-tamihere-waititi-calls-backlash-to-mongrel-mob-hui-manufactured-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633098\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: Kiri Tamihere-Waititi calls backlash to Mongrel Mob hui \u2018manufactured outrage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara posted photos from a \u201chealth and wellbeing election hui\u201d at the Mongrel Mob gang pad<\/a> featuring her and MPs H\u016bhana Lyndon and Hana-R\u0101whiti Maipi-Clarke, and Greens candidate Michel Mulipola.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kaupapa [theme] wasn\u2019t about us but about the health and wellbeing of the Mob community,\u201d Kaipara wrote.<\/p>\n

\"MPsMPs from the parties pictured with members of the Mongrel Mob. Photo \/ Facebook <\/p>\n

\u201cMany will raise eyebrows, throw stones and cast judgment over our visit but the truth is, every member of a gang is a member of a wh\u0101nau, a whakapapa [lineage] and a part of New Zealand society.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the video, Tamihere-Waititi said political opponents had deliberately turned \u201ca normal one of those huihui into an absolute scandal\u201d, with the right bloc \u201cfearmongering\u201d so they could paint Labour as soft on crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts old Chippy under pressure and he\u2019s fallen for it, because then he goes, \u2018That was terrible what Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and the Green Party did. They should never have done it\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, we have lunches, holidays, Christmases, and events and birthdays and everything with them. Why? Because they\u2019re our wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamihere-Waititi called the backlash an orchestrated attempt \u201cdesigned to stress everybody out and to make Labour say \u2018we\u2019re not working with the M\u0101ori Party or we\u2019re not working with Greens\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just there to sow division, sow seeds of doubt, and whakawehiwehi [scare]. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they\u2019re really good at, eh? And we fall for it all the time. So, you know, it\u2019s really important that we have our eyes wide open to all the different tactics that they pull out in the playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending colleagues against criticism over the meeting, Greens co-leader Marama Davidson \u2013 who made headlines for a similar visit in 2021 \u2013 said the party was \u201cproud\u201d to engage and advocate for marginalised communities, while co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick wanted to understand the context behind the visit.<\/p>\n

During the NZ Herald Leaders\u2019 Debate on Wednesday night, Hipkins said he didn\u2019t condone the meeting and, in response, ruled out giving the Greens or Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori the police or corrections portfolios<\/a> in a future coalition government.<\/p>\n

National leader Christopher Luxon said Hipkins had \u201ca new coalition member today, it\u2019s the Mongrel Mob\u201d, while National\u2019s justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith later called the Greens\u2019 willingness to fund the Mongrel Mob to deliver drug prevention programmes a \u201csick joke\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following a walkabout at New Lynn Mall today, Hipkins restated his belief that the meeting had been \u201can error of judgment\u201d from the parties, adding he had shared this view with Davidson in more detail yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisiting a gang pad and taking photos at a gang pad is not the sort of stuff that any responsible politician should be doing in an election campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny engagement that validates the legitimacy of gangs is stuff that politicians need to be careful to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether he believed gang members are equal to the average Kiwi, Hipkins said everybody\u2019s vote was equal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not out there campaigning for gang members\u2019 votes though. My focus is on making sure that Labour wins the election. <\/p>\n

\u201cGangs do a lot of harm in society and their peddling of drugs, the violence that we see that\u2019s perpetrated by gangs, that\u2019s not something that I want to give any credence to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this week, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara posted photos from a \u201chealth and wellbeing election hui\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,51,8172,242039,115,11687,155850,39172,5903,71,1328,2518,53398,115914,276420,2374,4754,4281,4280,2720,111,43,139,69,16348,4488,254,67667,46800,144717,9979,1240,310264,165,61,102],"class_list":["post-633098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-auckland","tag-backlash","tag-bloc","tag-calls","tag-criticised","tag-crossparty","tag-describing","tag-election","tag-from","tag-gang","tag-green","tag-hui","tag-kiri","tag-manufactured","tag-meeting","tag-members","tag-mob","tag-mongrel","tag-mori","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-outrage","tag-pad","tag-photos","tag-posing","tag-pti","tag-rebuke","tag-right","tag-south","tag-tamiherewaititi","tag-their","tag-to","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633098","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=633098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}