Candidate’s bid takes new turn
For the second time in two weeks, a New Plymouth mayoral candidate campaigning on honesty, integrity and transparency is saying his alignment to misinformation is all a misunderstanding.
Peter Hardgrave, who has already been criticised for posting misinformation on his Facebook page, has placed one of his billboards on the fence of a home notorious for its posters promoting widely discredited conspiracies like Pizzagate and its successor Qanon.
Qanon followers were part of the group that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, while Pizzagate is an American conspiracy theory linking child trafficking to powerful ‘‘elites’’.
Yesterday, Hardgrave said he had approached Peter Capper, the tenant of the New Plymouth Kāinga Ora house, to use his fence for his hoarding as it was located near a pedestrian crossing on one of the city’s main streets and next to The Cure Cafe.
He said he did not endorse ‘‘people’s behaviour’’.
‘‘I quite often go to The Cure [cafe] . . . so I thought ‘oh, that’s a good location’.
‘‘So, I seen the guy and he seemed pretty OK about it.’’
Hardgrave claimed he did not think about the conspiracy signs posted on the house.
‘‘I mean, if I hung that [hoarding] outside of a butcher shop, I’m not telling everyone that I like meat, that they shouldn’t be a vegetarian. You know what I mean,’’ he said.
The Cure Cafe has roadside fencing; however managers were not approached by Hardgrave about using its fence for his campaign hoarding.
In an emailed response to a request to talk about the sign, Capper said he had met Hardgrave once, years before, and was surprised to see him again at his door.
He said he had agreed to the billboard after ‘‘in-depth’’ discussions about Hardgrave’s intentions as mayor.
Capper said he did not discuss his own political views with Hardgrave.
He said this was ‘‘due to the sensitivity of global political truths and fictions from many mainstream media corporations, including yours, as I am neither right or left side of the fence’’.
This is the second time in two weeks that Hardgrave has characterised his alignment with misinformation as a misunderstanding.
In mid-august, Hardgrave said he had learnt a salient lesson after posting misinformation to his Facebook page.
In the post, Hardgrave shared a segment of a Newstalk ZB podcast referring to comments allegedly made by former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev about the secret creation of a socialist state in America.
Hardgrave’s post, where he claimed New Zealand was becoming a Communist state, drew strong criticism from a number of people who questioned why he would post misinformation while he was in the throes of a mayoral campaign.
At the time, Hardgrave said he simply did not know it was misinformation.
‘‘I’m not into conspiracy,’’ he said.
‘‘To me, it was just coincidental that things align with that.
‘‘It’s nothing to do with conspiracy.’’
Kāinga Ora regional director Graeme Broderick said tenants were able to have a billboard on the fence of their rented properties.
Like any other rental property tenant, customers can place political signage at their Kāinga Ora homes, just not attached to the building itself.