ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff
Taieri MP Ingrid Leary accidentally attended a Mongrel Mob meeting.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says there was “a bit of a case of miscommunication” – after Taieri MP Ingrid Leary turned up to a Mongrel Mob election meeting instead of an Electoral Commission meeting.
“She thought she was going to a meeting organised by the Electoral Commission to encourage people to enrol to vote.
“Turns out that that’s not the case.”
When the colour scheme difference between the bright orange of the Electoral Commission and the black and red of the Mongrel Mob was pointed out, Hipkins said, “yeah… but anyway, I certainly accept that’s how she ended up being there”.
“That’s what she said about how she ends up being there. And I accept that.”
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Hipkins said the advice or invitation that went to Leary indicated that she was going to a meeting that was organised by the Electoral Commission around voter enrolment.
“That’s the sort of thing that members of parliament attend regularly all the time, and I’d encourage them to do so. Clearly, that was not the nature of the meeting.”
Hipkins said he had not spoken to Leary directly. Leary has not responded to comment requests from Stuff.
Questions were raised after Mongrel Mob honorary life member Harry Tam posted on Facebook saying, “Another election hui done in Dunedin today. The local Labour MP heard about our hui and gate crashed our hui.”
“She said my name comes up in parliament a bit, so they’re a bit hesitant to be associated with me.”
“I told them I got news for them. They will be more concerned when they realise that we are targeting the marginal seats and mobilising our people to get off the Māori roll and go onto the general roll so we can vote in those marginal seat[s].”
Asked about the accidental attendance, Luxon said, it would be “pretty obvious you might want to exit stage left when you walk into the room and found out there’s a lot of gang members there”.
