Craig
McCulloch Deputy Political Editor
Kerrin Leoni
says she quit as a Labour candidate to stop the controversy
surrounding her association with the Mongrel Mob being used
as a “political weapon” to help National win the
election.
In her first public comments since
resigning, Leoni said the intense focus on her whānau had
become “increasingly difficult”.
“I can handle the
media scrutiny. I can handle the National Party attacking
me. That comes with being in politics,” she wrote on
Facebook on Friday afternoon.
“What has become
increasingly difficult is the intense focus on my whānau
and community.”
Leoni resigned as Labour’s Tāmaki
Makaurau candidate on Friday morning, after footage emerged
of her campaigning alongside Mongrel Mob members at an event
in early October.
The video showed the former Auckland
councillor encouraging those present to enrol to vote and
change the government. A separate photograph showed her
posing with people wearing Mongrel Mob regalia and making
gang-related hand gestures.
Leoni said a “whānau
function”, attended by mokopuna, kaumātua, gang members and
non-gang members had been turned into a “political weapon”,
used for political gain and media clicks.
“Is 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 onto power?”
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She said she
had always tried to show her family members other
opportunities in the hope they would choose a different
path.
“I cannot change who my whānau are or who I
grew up with, nor would I ever turn my back on
them.”
Leoni said she was proud to have represented
Labour and stood by her apology to Labour leader Chris
Hipkins: “I want everyone to know that I am okay. I will be
back.”
Earlier on Friday, Hipkins told reporters Leoni
had displayed “very very bad judgement” and had paid a “very
high price” for that.
Both Hipkins and Leoni had
earlier condemned Green
and Te Pāti Māori MPs for visiting a gang pad this
campaign.
Despite Leoni’s resignation, electoral
law states that she will still appear on the ballot as a
Labour candidate because nominations have already
closed.
‘What’s good for the goose is good for the
gangster’
National and ACT were both quick to seize
on the past day’s developments, arguing they had revealed
Labour’s true colours.
National leader Christopher
Luxon said the “chaotic situation” proved Labour could not
be trusted when it came to law and order.
“The Mongrel
Mob clearly want them to be elected to power, because they
know that they’re soft on crime,” he said.
“Even their
candidates think that’s okay to hang out with gang members
and pal around. We don’t think it is.”
Luxon said
National was not open to engaging with gangs in any
capacity: “I am not tolerant of gangs at all. I have no time
for gangs.”
He rejected Hipkins’ claim that there was
a racist element to the response: “It’s a crime issue… not
a race issue.”
ACT
leader David Seymour also came prepared to his daily media
conference with a string of one-liners. He said the saga
showed that the Labour did not truly believe that gangs were
bad.
“[Leoni] has revealed that what’s good for the
goose is good for the gangster,” he said.
“You’ve got
a real possibility that the Labour Party is being funded by
P money, and I don’t mean the artist from the
1990s.”
Hipkins earlier said he had been assured that
the function was not a fundraiser.
NZ First leader
Winston Peters struck a different tone from his coalition
partners, saying his party would not be “gloating” or
“salivating over somebody else’s misery”.
“I’m trying
to focus on the issues of those who are still on the ballot,
not those who are not.”
Peters stressed NZ First was
“utterly opposed” to gangs and had no sympathy for the
argument that they were the “victim of
colonisation”.
‘A
sad day for Māori’
In a separate social media post,
senior Māori Labour MP Willie Jackson said the loss of
Leoni as a candidate was a “real shame” but she “sadly made
the wrong call”.
“I want to congratulate Kerrin for
her courage,” he wrote. “She did not want to get in the way
of us trying to get rid of this rotten government, and she
knew the Nats would come after her if she stayed a
candidate.”
Te Pāti Māori defended Leoni, with
co-leader Rawiri Waititi describing her resignation as “a
sad day for Māori”.
“Our whānau do not stop being
our whānau because they wear a patch, and our
responsibility to them does not disappear because someone
finds their presence politically
inconvenient.”
Waititi accused the political right of
exploiting the controversy to divide parties seeking to
replace the government.
“The right benefits every time
we turn on each other, and we will not give them that
victory.”
He urged voters to give their electorate
vote to Te Pāti Māori and their party vote to Labour or
the Greens.
“We 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.”
Green co-leader Chloe Swarbrick declined
to weigh in on the saga, saying she was focused on the
issues that matter: “Most people are kind of sick and tired
of this
one.”
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