Ngaro last week made a late and surprising push to return to Parliament, launching a new political party called New Zeal. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Ngaro last week made a late and surprising push to return to Parliament, launching a new political party called New Zeal. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Former MP Alfred Ngaro has revealed why he left the National Party to launch his own political party, New Zeal.
In an interview on Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Ngaro indicated National’s failure to oppose law changes on gay conversion therapy and gender identity was a departure “from the values I held in there and that I believed the party was about”.
Ngaro last week made a late and surprising push to return to Parliament, launching a new political party called New Zeal. But he’s adamant that while he’s a Christian, it doesn’t make it a Christian party.
“This political party is not just for Christian people. I’m a Christian, my values that I have, but it’s a party for all New Zealanders, and I’ve always said that and that’s really important,” he told Cowan.
He says in his nine years in Parliament with National, ending in 2020, he was “very loyal to its values”. But he believes those values have shifted in the last three to five years, prompting him to form New Zeal.
“In the National Party when I was there, they always used to say ‘it’s a broad church’. Even though not everyone went to church, they’d love to say that. It didn’t make the National Party a Christian party, but people still used biblical terminology.
“The leadership and where it is at the moment, when I look at some of the decisions that have been made, they’ve moved away from some of the values I could hold while being a member and a MP with the National Party.”
Alfred Ngaro says in his nine years in Parliament with National, ending in 2020, he was “very loyal to its values.” Photo / John Stone
Asked for specific decisions by Cowan, Ngaro singled out two legislation changes that passed through the House as examples of things he couldn’t support: the prohibition of gay conversion therapy, and the allowing people to identify with a non-binary gender on official records.
“The thing that we prided ourselves on when I was part of the National Party, was that we were always evidence-based,” he said.
“Now when I look at both of those pieces of legislation that went through, the thing I scratched my head about is, ‘Why is it that we weren’t using scientific evidence to ask the questions? Why would we shift and change things?’
“To me, that didn’t make sense. But it seems that the politics of the day, even in Parliament at the moment, has moved away from a set of evidence-based questions. I haven’t moved, but some of the values of the National Party have drifted away from me.”
Ngaro was raised Christian, and faith was always “part of the DNA” of his family as he was growing up in Ponsonby in the 1960s. But his faith took on greater personal significance in the early 1980s when, as a 16-year-old, he heard an evangelist giving a sermon that made him rethink his purpose in life.
“As crazy as it sounds, it compelled me to look for who this Jesus was, who would be interested in me. My faith turned from being just a religion to a relationship.”
Ngaro would later train as an electrician, a theologian and a pastor, before moving into community development. He told Cowan he never chose to pursue a career in politics, but he was approached after delivering the closing prayer at a National Party fundraiser.
Alfred Ngaro speaks at the delivery of a cancer treatment petition to Parliament. Photo / Getty
“I got up and said, ‘All night, all I’ve heard is about left and right, blue and red about why we’re better than these guys. To be honest, for the average person on the street like me, it’s uninspiring. It doesn’t mean anything. We want to hear your heart. We want to know that you see us and believe in us’.
“Long story short, I got a standing ovation, and the people in the National Party said ‘You should be in Parliament… if you feel that you represent your community, its values and its views, then that’s what Parliament is for.’”
Ngaro entered Parliament in 2011, becoming the first person of Cook Islands descent to do so, but was ousted in 2020 when National fell to a crushing defeat in the election. He says it’s a “challenging place” to be for a Christian.
“Many times, some of the values and views I had were different. But I never saw it as a place that I was afraid of, because I knew who I was. I never went there to try and preach and condemn people, because that’s not the relationship that I have with the Jesus that I know.
“For me, I just lived my faith in very natural ways… because of that, people began to trust me and see that the things that I stood for and believed in were things that a lot of other people could see and believe in as well.”
Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7:30pm on Newstalk ZB.
