Candidate hit, another’s home invaded
A Labour candidate says she was slapped by an aggressive member of the public at a local election debate this week.
Taranaki-King Country candidate Angela Roberts said she was having a discussion with a “tall man” after a campaign debate at a Rotary Club in Inglewood when “aggressive fingerpointing started”.
“He grabbed my shoulders and shook me to emphasise the point he was making. Then he slapped my cheeks with both hands . . . I walked away and gathered my things and he left.”
Roberts said she thought that would be the end of it, but then realised it was important to call out the man’s aggression.
“Manhandling candidates on the campaign trail is completely unacceptable. I don’t know why he felt that it was okay to grab me or to slap me; that is a question for him. Would he have done it to a man? Who knows?
“What I do know is that it cannot happen again.”
Roberts thanked National Party candidate Barbara Kuriger and her team for supporting her following the incident.
Meanwhile, Hauraki-Waikato candidate Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s home has been invaded and vandalised, with a threatening letter left at her property. Te Pāti Māori said it was a politically motivated attack, and the third incident at 21-year-old MaipiClarke’s home this week.
“To our knowledge, this is the first time in our history that a politician’s home and personal property has been invaded to this extent,” a party statement said.
Speaking at an electorate debate last night, Maipi-Clarke had a message for those who invaded her home.
“Don’t be scared. The kohanga reo generation are here, and we have a huge movement coming through.
“I am not fearful. I am here to be a light and a māramatanga to us that we belong in these places.”