Te Ururoa Flavell: former Te Pāti Māori co-leader on MP Oriini Kaipara doubling down on support for gangs

Pressing the newsmakers to get the real story. It's Heather Duplessy-Allen Drive with One New Zealand. Phone dollars are for phones, obviously. News Talk ZB.

Afternoon at seven past five. Unbelievably, the mongrel mob drama is still dragging on. It's now on its sixth day. A video of the Hui has now emerged featuring Maori Party MP Oriini Kaipara campaigning for votes.

How come you don't have enough? How come you have to beg for it? Not a handout, for support, for more than support, acknowledging your mana. Our policies reinstate what should have always been.

After the video emerged, she gave an interview to RNZ defending her photos with the gang.

You see mongol mob, we see whanau. I see mums and dads, I see uncles who have been caught and trapped in intergenerational trauma.

Te Ururoa Flavell is a former leader of the Maori Party. Hi, Te Ururoa. Kia ora, how are you? Very well, thank you. Why are they still talking about this?

That's a good question. I mean, I would have thought it was, you know, in election time, people talk to people. Sometimes they talk to those who have been in prison, those who have been in gangs, those who have done misdemeanors, those who have made a lot of money. those who are wanting to make a lot of money. I think it's a bit of a beat up, to be frank, because people talk to people all the time throughout elections. And indeed, that's the job of MPs.

I think, but I mean, I agree with you. I don't think anybody's upset about them. Well, there may be some, but we're not upset about them talking to the mongrel mob. It's about the endorsing photos, right? The photographs with grins and thumbs up. I mean, can you see the distinction there?

No, not particularly. I mean, because when you meet people, you're going to be in... know i've been in a position myself when the issues that you're discussing with people are either about sad and bad or giving people hope and um and from time to time you talk to people about the issues that they have to confront some of which obviously relate in this case to gang members of about decisions that they make about decisions that they should make about how they can improve their lives in a better way And from time to time, those emotions will be expressed through photographs. And I suppose that's the problem that people are reading into it a hell of a lot more than one would think is appropriate. And look, it's just a part of the course for MPs as far as I'm concerned.

Okay. And yet still politically a bad idea to keep talking about it, do you think?

Well, I just think it's probably going to die a death shortly, but to keep it in the headlines and sort of say, well, there's a big conspiracy going on here and so on and so forth, I think is a little bit over the top. I mean, meeting with gang members has been highlighted in social media that Rob Muldoon back in the day with his wife sat down with gang members because they wanted to get a better handle on what they were about at that particular... We're talking back in the 70s or so, I think it was. You know, that's not new, and I'm pretty sure that all the political parties at one point or another have met with gang members because they have been,