Wong says she’s never posed with gangs, slams ‘tit for tat’ photo row

As photos of politicians alongside gang figures keep surfacing in the campaign’s final weeks, Opportunity's Qiulae Wong says she has never posed for any, and her candidates have assured her they haven’t either.

Wong’s comments came as she launched her party's proposal for a Future Generations Commissioner, a proposal National and Labour both greeted with scepticism.

Images linking gang members to Te Pāti Māori, the Greens and Labour have emerged during the campaign, and images of National ministers have since surfaced.

Wong was asked at a media conference in Auckland earlier today whether she had ever campaigned with, spent time with or been photographed with gang members.

Wong said: “I have not. No.”

Earlier on Q+A she said her "candidates have assured me they do not" either.

Wong said politicians should not campaign alongside gang members, and she opposed funding gangs to fix problems “when they have been responsible for creating them".

She said the row had pulled attention away from policy.

“I think where it’s gotten to with the whole tit for tat on photos is indicative of the kind of politicking that we’re seeing at the moment, rather than focusing on the big issues and the solutions that need to be put forward to solve them."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, speaking at a press conference in Wellington today, said the past 48 hours had shown National to be hypocrites on gangs. He said: “National Party are all over the show here. They’re happy to line up and talk to gang members.”

National leader Christopher Luxon, whose photo with gang members at Parliament’s abuse in care apology has circulated on social media over the past day, drew a line between such encounters and campaigning for gang votes.

Speaking in Auckland, he said: “Do not conflate when many of us in our public roles may have photos with gang members or may even engage in conversation, as I did around abuse in state care - don’t misinterpret that as us showing up, asking for their vote.”

Wong accepted that some of the photos appeared to have been taken at public events.

She said: “I’ve had many photos of people, and I don’t know exactly who they are. I can imagine it’s hard to vet every single person that you have a photo with.”

But pressed on Q+A over whether she would have voted for the gang patch ban, Wong said it would depend on the evidence, which she had not looked at closely. She said, however, that she would leave the ban in place if elected, breaking with the Greens.

Wong said: “Our focus is on prevention and rehabilitation. That is how you get offending numbers down. That’s how you reduce victimisation.”

But she gave a flat no when asked if she would have backed the coalition government's three strikes re-introduction over the past term.

Asked why she had a position on one law and not the other, Wong said: “I haven’t looked at the evidence on the gang patch ban. I have looked at the evidence on the three strikes law, and that evidence says that it doesn’t work.”

Wong also said she would have no reservations about supporting a government on either side that relied on an overhang to reach a majority.

An overhang occurs when a party wins more electorate seats than its share of the party vote would give it, adding seats to Parliament.

Wong told Q+A she believed Te Pāti Māori was running a deliberate overhang strategy, and said ACT had done the same.

“We’ve been very clear that we disapprove of that approach, but ultimately we have to form a government somehow, and that is formed by having a majority in the House. We can’t change the way that those seats are allocated, so we’ve got to work with [it]."

Opportunity has published its bottom lines for coalition talks, including a cross-party 10-year plan for health. Wong said the rest of its policy, including restoring same-day enrolment, would depend on who else was at the table.

“Everything else is on the table that we believe in, and it’s going to depend who else is around the table as to how much we can prioritise from the rest of our policy suite.”

Wong also would not say on Q+A whether defence spending should reach 2% of GDP, saying it needed to be weighed against other priorities.

Wong launched her party's proposal to introduce a Future Generations Commissioner during on Q+A. The commissioner would be an officer of Parliament appointed for five years, and would lead a national conversation to set long-term goals for the country.

But the proposed role would have no power to force governments to act on its findings.

Asked on Q+A why politicians who already ignore reports from bodies such as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment would treat a new commissioner any differently, Wong said public involvement would make the goals harder to dismiss.

She said: “This strengthens democracy so that everyday citizens are more involved and it’s not just voting once every three years.”

Asked if the commissioner would add another layer of bureaucracy, Wong said New Zealanders were losing trust in politicians.

Wong said: “We do need a stronger voice of experts that can weigh in on these decisions. We can’t take all of the decision-making power away from politicians, but we absolutely can strengthen our ability to think long-term.”

The Opportunity leader put the cost of the commissioner at about $5 million a year.

"It's not a huge amount of money, particularly when you think about the billions we are wasting on flip-flopping on infrastructure, on changing around health and education."

National’s Luxon, who has ruled out working with Opportunity, dismissed the proposal, saying he had not seen it but it sounded like “more waffle”.

Labour's Hipkins said he was open to a conversation about a commissioner after the election, but he made clear he was deeply sceptical such a body would change anything.

"The reality is that you can’t do anything to ensure that they are more than just talk."

He pointed to the Productivity Commission and the Families Commission as examples.

"Fundamentally, democracy is a contest of ideas," the Labour leader said.

"Whether it's a Futures Commission, Families Commission, Productivity Commission, they tend to produce some very good ideas, but they don't go anywhere if they don't have the political support. That's why election campaigns matter."

Speaking today, Wong also rejected suggestions the media had helped to drive Opportunity’s surge, and said about "99%" of members had voted to change its constitution after questions were raised over board powers in her last Q+A interview.

For the full interview, watch the video above

Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air