{"id":640073,"date":"2026-10-24T15:08:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640073\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:08:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:08:32","slug":"christopher-luxon-pictured-with-black-power-members-at-abuse-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640073\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon pictured with Black Power members at abuse apology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NationalNational MP Erica Stanford speaking with Black Power member and state abuse survivor Albie Epere. Photo \/ Aaron Smale, Newsroom<\/p>\n

Newsroom also showed a photo of National Party MP Erica Stanford speaking with a man in what appears to be Black Power regalia.<\/p>\n

In both cases, Luxon and Stanford were representing the Government as part of the Abuse in State Care inquiry process.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen Party and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori candidates posed for social media photos with the Mongrel Mob. <\/p>\n

Photos of politicians with gang members have been a controversial topic since Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and Green representatives attended a Mongrel Mob gathering during the election campaign.<\/p>\n

The photographs of the politicians and candidates posing with gang members, including Tam, sparked criticism from National.<\/p>\n

The controversy deepened on Thursday when footage emerged of Labour\u2019s T\u0101maki Makaurau candidate Kerrin Leoni appearing to campaign alongside Mongrel Mob members.<\/p>\n

The video showed Leoni wearing Labour-branded clothing, holding campaign material and encouraging people to vote.<\/p>\n

\"AA photo of now-former Labour candidate Kerrin Leoni with Mongrel Mob members from an October 3 gathering she described as a “wh\u0101nau event”. Photo \/ Newsroom<\/p>\n

Leoni maintained she had attended a wh\u0101nau gathering where some relatives were gang members, rather than visiting a gang pad.<\/p>\n

However, she resigned as Labour\u2019s candidate on Friday<\/a> after Hipkins said the footage was inconsistent with the standards he expected.<\/p>\n

Since then, a photo has emerged of National Party MP Tama Potaka posing for a photo alongside patched gang members in 2024.<\/p>\n

The photo was taken at the Hui-\u0101-motu event, convened by the late K\u012bngi T\u016bheitia.<\/p>\n

\"NationalNational MP Tama Potaka posed alongside patched Mongrel Mob members at a K\u00c4\u00abngitanga event in 2023. National MP Tama Potaka posed alongside patched Mongrel Mob members at a K\u012bngitanga event in 2024. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Potaka told the Herald it was a \u201cmassive public hui\u201d and he was approached by an old school friend who asked to have a photo together. It was before National\u2019s gang patch ban came into force.<\/p>\n

Labour leader Chris Hipkins accused Luxon of \u201chypocrisy\u201d and a \u201cmassive double standard\u201d for downplaying the significance of the photo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National MP Erica Stanford speaking with Black Power member and state abuse survivor Albie Epere. Photo \/ Aaron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1903,53633,1975,7022,16426,34219,3054,31787,1328,63975,16427,1073,4754,3556,71084,111,43,139,69,254,59974,18481,10112,196297,75700,1072,102],"class_list":["post-640073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-abuse","tag-apology","tag-at","tag-black","tag-christopher","tag-connecting","tag-criticism","tag-doing","tag-gang","tag-gangs","tag-luxon","tag-media","tag-members","tag-national","tag-nationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-photos","tag-pictured","tag-politicians","tag-power","tag-rebuttal","tag-rounds","tag-social","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640073","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=640073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}