When asked if any other Labour candidates had attended meetings with gang members while on the campaign trail, Hipkins said he was aware of no other instances.<\/p>\n
Because of the late stage of her resignation, Leoni\u2019s name will still be on ballot papers as a Labour candidate.<\/p>\n
In her statement, Leoni said the \u201cintense focus on my wh\u0101nau and community\u201d had become \u201cincreasingly difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n
She continued to describe the event as a \u201cwh\u0101nau function attended by mokopuna, kaum\u0101tua, gang members and non-gang members\u201d, saying it had \u201cbeen turned into a political weapon, used for political gain and media clicks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this really the kind of New Zealand we want to live in? Is this really the behaviour we want to model to our tamariki and mokopuna? Is this really how desperate some political leaders have become to cling on to power?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The resignation followed a day of speculation about whether Leoni had visited the same gang pad that members of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and the Greens visited earlier this month, earning them a stark rebuke from Hipkins, who would likely lead any post-election coalition of those parties.<\/p>\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins campaigning at the Hawke’s Bay A&P Show on Friday. Photo \/ Michaela Gower<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t condone it. I think it was a bad judgment,\u201d Hipkins said of the visit during the Herald\u2019s leaders\u2019 debate last week.<\/p>\n
In the same debate, Hipkins went as far as ruling out allowing members of Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and the Greens to serve in law and order portfolios in a Government he led.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, there is no evidence of Leoni visiting a gang pad. But the footage that emerged on Thursday night showed Leoni in Labour gear appearing to campaign with patched gang members.<\/p>\n
The latest round of the scandal was triggered during a Whakaata M\u0101ori debate when Leoni\u2019s rival in the T\u0101maki Makaurau seat, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s Oriini Kaipara, alleged Leoni was at the pad. <\/p>\n
By Friday, however, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Rawiri Waititi was trying to distance his party from its role in Leoni\u2019s downfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe right benefits every time we turn on each other, and we will not give them that victory,\u201d Waititi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can disagree on how this has been handled without losing sight of what unites us. Our people cannot afford another three years of this Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not allow this controversy to distract us from our collective responsibility to dismantle this Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Leoni out of the picture in T\u0101maki Makaurau, the scandal gives Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori a better chance of succeeding in triggering a parliamentary overhang.<\/p>\n
Greens co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick wouldn\u2019t say if she was comfortable with the standard being set by Hipkins, who would lead any potential Government involving her party.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the Green Party very, very committed to our values and our principles, which look like appropriate decision making, which look like restorative justice, which look like a commitment to evidence-based policy. Those are the values of the Greens,\u201d Swarbrick said.<\/p>\n
The coalition parties criticised Labour for its handling of the scandal.<\/p>\n
National leader Christopher Luxon said the fallout was \u201cvery chaotic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery chaotic on the Labour side is my read of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Luxon said he was \u201cnot tolerant of gangs at all. I have no time for gangs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Campaigning in Hawke\u2019s Bay, Luxon said gangs had terrorised that part of the country.<\/p>\n
He claimed the Mongrel Mob clearly wanted Labour elected to power because \u201cthey\u2019re soft on crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
Act Party deputy leader Nicole McKee said that while Leoni could not pick her wh\u0101nau, she could pick where she campaigned.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris Hipkins has been caught out lecturing other parties about their judgment while his candidates campaign with gang members,\u201d McKee said.<\/p>\n
She said the footage showed \u201cwhat\u2019s at stake this election\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the left you have two parties openly campaigning for gang votes, and one trying to do it secretly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones accused Labour of wanting to \u201cromanticise\u201d gangs, saying that in reality they were \u201chardened thugs\u201d who want to peddle \u201cmisery, meth and intimidation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked if any other Labour candidates had attended meetings with gang members while on the campaign trail,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,1738,19956,4731,5903,4999,71,296,56450,6721,27699,56451,6048,111,43,139,69,3111,106487,3044,92399,25447,6047,143077,24688,102],"class_list":["post-639263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-as","tag-campaign","tag-candidate","tag-days","tag-election","tag-friday","tag-from","tag-into","tag-kerrin","tag-labour","tag-labours","tag-leoni","tag-makaurau","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-quits","tag-resignation","tag-rocked","tag-thrown","tag-tmaki","tag-turmoil","tag-voting","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639263","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=639263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}