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A man has been served a trespass notice after he allegedly entered Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s Huntly house uninvited, party bosses say.
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere told the Herald that a Waikato man allegedly opened her front gate yesterday, walked up to the front door and walked into her house. He was confronted by a whānau member in the house. Tamihere claimed the accused had links to the National Party.
A National Party spokesperson said they were not aware of these “very serious allegations”.
“Police have not been in touch with us and Te Pāti Māori’s comments are the first time we were made aware of these allegations. National utterly rejects racism and any suggestion that we have engaged in race-baiting,” a National spokesperson said.
“We have been told the man was issued with a trespass notice and said that was the end of the matter,” Tamihere said.
“What Te Pāti Māori are saying, if this was a Māori who walked into some white person’s home and said where is Tim van de Molen (the local National MP) there would have been a major manhunt launched.
Hana Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke on the campaign trail. Photo / Supplied
“Furthermore the police have advised Hana that she lives in a cul-de-sac and she needs to be careful.”
“We will be laying a formal complaint.
“We are left with no choice but to elevate this matter to the Commissioner.”
Te Pāti Māori president John Tamihere. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Tamihere said Maipi-Clarke has been the victim of four separate incidents and is traumatised but would not stop her campaigning.
In the first incident, a Te Pāti Māori hoarding on Maipi-Clarke’s property was vandalised. The second incident was a burglary “where the place was left to be known that someone had been in her home” and the third photos left of her prescription, that had been taken from her rubbish bin a day earlier, along with a threatening note.
“We won‘t get into what was written because that is part of the police investigation but you would have thought a handwriting expert could have a view because it was hand written,” Tamihere said.
“Hana is traumatised because she wouldn’t expect this kind of thing to happen. How many MPs or politicians homes have been broken into for political gain?
“The key focus for Police over the election period is to maintain law and order and ensure the right to freedom of expression is protected,” a spokesperson said.
“Waikato Police are making enquiries into reports received in relation to a property in Huntly.”
Joseph Los’e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for 12 years for Te Whānau o Waipareira.
