Electoral Commission attended Mongrel Mob hui where Labour MP Ingrid Leary dropped in

Labour MP Ingrid Leary went to a Mongrel Mob election hui in Dunedin, thinking it was an Electoral Commission meeting. Photo / NZME

Taieri MP Ingrid Leary mistook a Mongrel Mob hui in Dunedin for an Electoral Commission meeting because there were commission staff there.

The commission has confirmed to the Herald that it was invited to Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam’s election hui at the weekend.

“Our community engagement team was invited to a hui organised by the Mongrel Mob at a community centre in Dunedin on Saturday, July 1, to talk about enrolling and voting. Two of our team members attended the hui for just over an hour.”

The commission said it was not providing any funding for Tam’s election meetings around the country.

“We provide information on enrolling and voting and assistance to enrol if needed.”

Tam had posted on Facebook about the local Labour MP who “gate-crashed” his hui. His post said that she’d told him “my name comes up in Parliament a bit so they’re a bit hesitant to be associated with me”.

Yesterday Leary confirmed to the Herald that she had gone to the hui, but had thought it was an Electoral Commission meeting to encourage enrolment. She did not answer further questions about how she confused the Mongrel Mob with the commission.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was pressed during yesterday’s post-Cabinet press conference about how Leary made the error.

Reminded of the distinct differences in colour patterns - with the commission’s Orange Guy icon, and the Mob’s distinctive red and black bulldog patch - Hipkins said: “Yeah it would appear so, but anyway, I certainly accept that that’s how she ended up being there. That’s what she said about how she ends up being there. And I accept it.”

In response to the commission’s confirmation that their staff were there, Leary told the Herald: “I was invited to the meeting by a member of the [Corstorphine] Community Hub committee. As I’ve previously said, I was under the impression it was an Electoral Commission meeting encouraging enrolment. The confirmation from the Electoral Commission that they attended the meeting to promote enrolment confirms how this misunderstanding arose.”

This morning the National Party highlighted Tam’s Facebook comments, and asked supporters to drop a $30 donation into its election coffers.

“The Coalition of Chaos just got a new member. The Mongrel Mob,” the request said.

The Facebook comments show Tam endorsing an electoral vote for Labour and a party vote for the Greens “so Labour has a coalition partner”.

Tam has clashed with the National Party recently over its gang policies, saying the party knows nothing about gangs or how to reduce gang membership or violence.

National wants to ban gang patches and insignia in public places, and give police a range of extra powers to disperse gang members in public, make it a crime for some of them to access firearms, and prevent them from communicating with each other for up to four years.

It’s not the first time Tam has tried to sway how Mob members’ vote. In a video post before the 2020 election, he told them not to vote for National, saying: “All of a sudden we can turn into 20,000 to 30,000 votes, we are a lot more powerful than we care to think we are and I need you all to think about registering to vote because if you don’t and that motherf**ker gets in, your life is going to be hell.”

Hipkins and National Party leader Christopher Luxon both said yesterday that they did not want any votes from gang members.

Derek Cheng is a senior journalist for the Herald and a former Deputy Political Editor, who has worked on and off for the Herald’s Press Gallery team since 2010.