{"id":18799,"date":"2026-10-27T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18799"},"modified":"2026-10-27T12:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T23:57:08","slug":"greens-blast-backing-the-gangs-election-billboard-ads-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18799","title":{"rendered":"Greens blast ‘backing the gangs’ election billboard ads"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Sensible Sentencing Trust is “formally challenging” Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick to meet with it – and victims of gang violence – before the election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The lobby group launched election attack ads featuring both Green co-leaders Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, as well as Labour leader Chris Hipkins, alongside the text “BACKING THE GANGS” above the Greens’ campaign slogan “for all of us”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Swarbrick called the ads an “entirely new low” and called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to condemn the “despicable downgrading of democracy”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The party complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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JC Decaux, the media company that owns the billboards, told RNZ it had paused the ads while it reviewed the concerns raised.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesperson Louise Parsons said the Greens’ outrage over the ads was deeply hypocritical – citing its candidates campaigning with gang members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“They defend meeting with the Mongrel Mob, smile for photos at gang pads, and have even floated funding the Mob to run drug programmes,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“They have never sat down with the country’s largest victims’ support and advocacy organisation.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Parsons said the SST was “challenging” Swarbrick to a meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are happy to arrange that meeting at any time. The victims are waiting. The question is whether she has the courage to face them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The billboard ads were created by the Campaign Company, owned by Taxpayers’ Union boss Jordan Williams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Greens said the SST was a Taxpayers’ Union “astroturf group” – that is, a fake grassroots organisation supporting the same cause.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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SST spokesperson Louise Parsons denied that – “We certainly aren’t TPU at all” – but confirmed the involvement of Williams’ company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We just want to try and get our message across, and that’s what we’ve done,” she said. “We’re not going to make any apologies for that at all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Parsons said the ads were meant to warn voters against a Labour-led coalition, referring to a “spike” in crime under the previous Labour government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are intent on not allowing them back in to do it again,” she said. “We’re trying to avoid further victims.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The SST was also behind last year’s ‘Defund the police’ billboards, resembling Green Party campaign hoardings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Green Party complained to the ASA about those too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In that case, the ASA upheld the complaints in part, saying the advertiser’s identity must be clearer to avoid confusion. It did not uphold complaints that the ads caused harm or offence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson said it did not create the latest ads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“For a party demanding a clean campaign, even getting their facts right would be a good start,” they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The SST and the Taxpayers’ Union run a shared website called ‘We can’t afford Labour’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked for his response to Swarbrick’s comments, a spokesperson for Luxon referred RNZ to the organisation responsible for the ads.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A Labour Party spokesperson said: “While this ad is nasty and untrue, we’re unlikely to make a complaint against it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The ads follow the saga involving Labour, Greens and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori candidates campaigning with gang members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Labour candidate Kerrin Leoni resigned, after Hipkins took a hard line on the matter, but the Greens and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori have been unapologetic, saying they would not turn their back on gang wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is “formally challenging” Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick to meet with it – and victims of gang violence – before the election. The lobby group launched election attack ads featuring both Green co-leaders Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick and Marama Davidson, as well as Labour leader Chris Hipkins, alongside the text “BACKING THE GANGS” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18801,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799\/revisions\/18801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}