National’s Hamilton East candidate Ryan Hamilton says no red flags were raised by the party regarding his historical comments opposing water fluoridation and Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
Hamilton told the Herald his opposition to using fluoride, which included saying it was pointless because “most lower socio economics fill their tap water with Raro”, was not raised during the candidate selection process.
His views on the approach to Covid-19, which included opposing restricting unvaccinated people from council buildings and claiming coroner reporting was seemingly used to “inflate death numbers for the propaganda machine” were addressed but no one from the party was concerned, Hamilton claimed.
“No one raised concerns at the time,” he said.
“I think there might have been a discussion but there were no red flags, I was transparent about everything.”
That’s despite National leader Christopher Luxon saying Hamilton’s past comments were “entirely inappropriate and wrong”.
“He subsequently apologised for those remarks and our position on fluoride is very much aligned with the Government, which is that we have supported the government moving fluoride management from local councils to the Director General [of Health],” Luxon said today.
Hamilton, a Hamilton City councillor since 2018, was selected as National’s Hamilton East candidate in February. His past comments were revealed by RNZ today.
Speaking to the Herald, Hamilton said it was a “bit embarrassing” to see his comments - some made as many as nine years ago. He said they were “rash” and apologised for any offence they caused.
On his comments about fluoride, Hamilton now said he probably didn’t believe them at the time and they were “ill-thought through”.
However, he said it wasn’t until joining the National Party did he confront his position on fluoridation.
“I obviously had views in the past when I became a member of the National Party or more specifically when I took on the nomination of the party.
“There’s things that you sign up for and caucus has made decisions and I respect that.”
Despite indicating he was now in favour of using fluoride, Hamilton wouldn’t answer directly whether he supported it.
“As I say, I support the party position, the place for that was obviously in the caucus meeting, which has all been ironed out, I wasn’t privy to that, but I come on board accepting that position and I’m on board with it.”
Asked whether his main motivation for changing his views was to become an MP, Hamilton said: “I think that’s what I said before, the time for that is in a caucus environment where you air your views and you come out with a resolved position. I wasn’t privy to that obviously, but I totally accept that that’s a resolution.”
Hamilton said there had been no other views he’d had to reconcile upon joining the party, saying his values aligned with the party’s values of rewarding hard work and providing safer communities.
Asked whether it was good enough for politicians to change their personal views based on party policy, Hamilton said it was “case-by-case” depending on who was impacted.
Asked how Hamilton East voters could have confidence in his values, Hamilton said: “I don’t think I’m changing my values, my values are the same.”
As a councillor, Hamilton had not supported vaccine mandates prohibiting unvaccinated people from council properties like libraries and pools.
Hamilton said he would support the party if it deemed mandates were necessary in the future.
Asked about his personal view on vaccine mandates, Hamilton said he didn’t want to speculate on a hypothetical scenario.
“Like I say, I’m part of the party now so I’d have to work that through as and when it came up so I don’t want to speculate.”
Told that he was best placed to speculate on his personal views, Hamilton repeated it was a hypothetical scenario.
Hamilton said he wouldn’t “entertain” questions about his former comments on Covid-19, which included questioning whether the Covid vaccination violated the Bill of Rights and that the “welfare of the vulnerable is a carefully constructed manipulative, guilt-inducing narrative”.
Asked if it was fair for politicians to be scrutinised for past comments, Hamilton said it was a difficult topic.
“There’s no boundaries any more with social media, you leave a digital footprint everywhere, so it’s challenging but I guess there’s a high level of accountability.”
He regretted that Luxon’s media appearance today was dominated by his past comments and hoped he and Luxon could move on and work to achieve National’s vision for New Zealand.
Hamilton described his candidate selection as a “robust process”.
Luxon today claimed Hamilton had since changed his views to align with the party’s. He also warned no one would go into Parliament if their past views were scrutinised in such a way.
In August, National issued a press release attacking Labour minister Dr Deborah Russell for public comments she made on tax that conflicted with the party’s current positions.
Challenged whether he was being hypocritical, Luxon disagreed and said Russell’s role as associate finance minister meant her former views on tax were more relevant.
“I would suggest he’s not an expert on fluoridation,” Luxon said of Hamilton.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.