Lauren
Crimp Political reporter
The
Sensible Sentencing Trust is “formally challenging” Green
Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick to meet with it – and
victims of gang violence – before the election.
The
lobby group launched election attack ads featuring both
Green co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, as
well as Labour leader Chris Hipkins, alongside the text
“BACKING THE GANGS” above the Greens’ campaign slogan “for
all of us”.
Swarbrick called the ads an “entirely new
low” and called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to
condemn the “despicable downgrading of democracy”.
The
party complained to the Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA).
JC Decaux, the media company that owns the
billboards, told RNZ it had paused the ads while it reviewed
the concerns raised.
Sensible Sentencing Trust
spokesperson Louise Parsons said the Greens’ outrage over
the ads was deeply hypocritical – citing its candidates
campaigning with gang members.
“They defend meeting
with the Mongrel Mob, smile for photos at gang pads, and
have even floated funding the Mob to run drug programmes,”
she said.
“They have never sat down with the country’s
largest victims’ support and advocacy
organisation.”
Parsons said the SST was “challenging”
Swarbrick to a meeting.
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“We are happy to arrange that
meeting at any time. The victims are waiting. The question
is whether she has the courage to face them.”
The
billboard ads were created by the Campaign Company, owned by
Taxpayers’ Union boss Jordan Williams.
The Greens said
the SST was a Taxpayers’ Union “astroturf group” – that is,
a fake grassroots organisation supporting the same
cause.
SST spokesperson Louise Parsons denied that –
“We certainly aren’t TPU at all” – but confirmed the
involvement of Williams’ company.
“We just want to try
and get our message across, and that’s what we’ve done,” she
said. “We’re not going to make any apologies for that at
all.”
Parsons said the ads were meant to warn voters
against a Labour-led coalition, referring to a “spike” in
crime under the previous Labour government.
“We are
intent on not allowing them back in to do it again,” she
said. “We’re trying to avoid further victims.”
The SST
was also behind last year’s ‘Defund the police’ billboards,
resembling
Green Party campaign hoardings.
The Green Party
complained to the ASA about those too.
In that case,
the ASA upheld the complaints in part, saying the
advertiser’s identity must be clearer to avoid confusion. It
did not uphold complaints that the ads caused harm or
offence.
A Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson said it did
not create the latest ads.
“For a party demanding a
clean campaign, even getting their facts right would be a
good start,” they said.
The SST and the Taxpayers’
Union run a shared website called ‘We can’t afford
Labour’.
Asked for his response to Swarbrick’s
comments, a spokesperson for Luxon referred RNZ to the
organisation responsible for the ads.
A Labour Party
spokesperson said: “While this ad is nasty and untrue, we’re
unlikely to make a complaint against it.”
The ads
follow the saga involving Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori
candidates campaigning with gang members.
Labour
candidate Kerrin Leoni resigned, after Hipkins took a hard
line on the matter, but the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have
been unapologetic, saying they would not turn their back on
gang
whānau.
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