‘ Manhandling’ claim after fiery Mt Roskill debate
Mt Roskill byelection candidate Michael Wood has been accused of “man- handling” and swearing at the husband of his National Party rival after a heated candidates’ debate.
Wood has denied touching the husband of National MP and Mt Roskill candidate Parmjeet Parmar, but has admitted there was a “robust” altercation.
Parmar told the Herald Wood had lost his cool after appearing to get “rattled” during the public debate on Wednesday night.
That came after heckling from Parmar’s husband, Ravinder, and other National Party supporters, who sat in the front rows at the Three Kings Community Centre.
The byelection is being held after long- serving Mt Roskill and Labour MP Phil Goff was elected Auckland Mayor.
At one point in the debate, Parmar said Wood had no choice but to be a “yes man” to both Goff and the local community board. That was greeted with applause from her supporters, with Ravinder Parmar among those who yelled out that Wood’s wife, Julie Fairey, was on the local board.
Wood reacted strongly, warning: “If I hear comments about my wife from the National Party front row, there might be some problems after this meeting.”
According to a report by the Central Leader, Wood made good on that threat after the debate when he “angrily confronted the person who made the comment about his wife”. That person was Ravinder Parmar. National Party member Graham Collins told the Herald he was one of several people to see the confrontation, which he said came about when Wood approached Parmar from behind and, gripping his arms, turned him around.
“I saw him man- handling Mr Parmar, I heard him threaten him,” Collins said. “He had a good grip on him, both arms. Mr Parmar had his back to him, he grabbed him from behind and turned him around. He kept swearing at him and threatening him.
“When I separated them both, I stood between them, I just put my hands softly on his shoulders.”
Collins said Wood then swore at him, and he told the Labour candidate to calm down and walk away.
Wood did not respond to a request for comment, but later put out a statement calling on National to “stop the personal attacks on him and his family”.
“Ravinder, Parmjeet Parmar’s husband, made loud derogatory comments about my wife. I’m disappointed that Parmjeet Parmar’s campaign has stooped to such lows.
“After the debate I confronted Ravinder and robustly told him his language was unacceptable.
“After words were exchanged I left the scene. There was no pushing or any physical contact by me, and any claims by the Parmar campaign to the contrary are untrue.”
Parmjeet Parmar said she did not see the confrontation, and declined to go into details about what she understood happened.
“I don’t want to get into describing what happened. It was unpleasant and his reaction was disproportionate because the comment [ by Ravinder and supporters] was insignificant and just a fact.
“He seemed to be kind of rattled. My feeling is he couldn’t take the heat of the debate.
“I wonder how he is going to take the heat of the debating chamber.”
Parmar denied the comments that upset Wood were derogatory.
The alleged confrontation is more bad blood between the National and Labour candidates, after Parmar previously accused Fairey of trying to ban her from citizenship ceremonies.
Fairey, the deputy chair of the Puketapapa board, had said only electorate MPs could attend as part of the official party, not locally based List MPs. Wood could also attend as a member of the Puketapapa community board.
Fairey retracted after she sought clarification and was told anybody could attend.
Last week Parmar questioned Goff ’ s involvement in Wood’s campaign, saying it made a sham of Goff ’s claim to be “independent”.
In response, Wood said Parmar had binged on Parliamentary- funded advertising material in the lead- up to the byelection campaign to maximise her profile.
Mt Roskill includes the suburbs of Lynfield, Wesley, Hillsborough and parts of Three Kings and Sandringham. In 2014, Goff won with an 8000- vote majority, but National got about 2000 more party votes.