You get invited to a meeting one wet Saturday afternoon, decide to pop in for a few minutes, and lo and behold it turns out to be a Mongrel Mob gathering. And who among us has not had that happen to them? Bit awkward, but you do not want to appear rude do you? Best to hide down the back for a few minutes and then slip out quietly.
Except that if you are a member of Parliament it is difficult to slip in, or out, of anything quietly, as Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary has discovered.
By Monday morning word was out that Ms Leary had ‘‘gatecrashed — to use Mob member Harry Tam’s terminology — the gang’s gathering.
By Monday afternoon the boss of Ingrid’s mob, Chris Hipkins, was fielding questions about the fiasco. Although given it provided the PM with a few minutes’ respite from the borderline intrusive grilling about Kiritapu Allan which he was enduring at his weekly press conference Mr Hipkins might well have welcomed the distraction.
First-term backbench MPs are usually desperate for attention, but these were the kind of bright lights Ms Leary could do without.
Her misfortune was built upon the unhappy coincidence that her trip to Corstorphine came just hours after National had made an announcement about combating gang-related crime. Ms Leary’s red jacket amid a sea of red-patched mobsters was heaven-sent meme fodder.
Her explanation, that she thought she was attending an Electoral Commission-sponsored meeting, sounded feeble, but lo and behold it actually turned out that the commission had been present, although it was not the organiser of the event.
Although not in Cabinet, Ms Leary is chairwoman of the finance and expenditure select committee, a role which is often a precursor to a more senior role. This is a minor embarrassment for Labour, albeit one likely to be momentary for the party.
Ms Leary, however, will be hearing about this one for the rest of the election campaign, rather like her colleague David Clark and his bicycle and National rival Michael Woodhouse and his homeless man. Most of us do not have to live through a bad day at work in public. That is the sorry lot of our politicians.
However, the broader issues this raises are likely to be lost amid all the chuckling and mud slinging. For a start, like it or not, in a democracy gang members get a vote, and they are as entitled as anyone else to receive advice about enrolling and voting as anyone else. And also like it or not, gang members live in our communities and they and their families, like everyone else, are represented by a constituency MP. Not all are as familiar with gangs as former prime minister, the late Rob Muldoon, who had a close relationship with a few gang chapters.
Mr Muldoon was a strong advocate of subsidised work schemes for gangs, theorising that if they were busy doing manual labour that they would stay away from crime. Although a simplistic view of gangs, let alone crime, at least the National leader was trying to find a solution other than slamming the cell door and throwing away the key.
It is an example the latest iteration of National’s leadership might wish to consider as it launches yet another law and order election campaign with lashings of being tough on gangs.
And another thing
The name Hannah Dingley will mean little to all but the most diehard football fans, but yesterday morning she crashed through a glass ceiling to become the first female manager in men’s English professional football.
True she is, at this stage, an interim rather than a full-time manager. Humble League Two side Forest Green Rovers (ground capacity 5147) is light years away from the bright lights of the Premier League. And, yes, it was a pre-season friendly against non-league Melksham Town.
But firsts have to start somewhere and this feels significant roughly equivalent in New Zealand rugby terms to a woman coaching Buller or Thames Valley. So long as they have the right technical and motivational skill set there should be no gender barrier to any coach steering any sports team, as Hannah Dingley and hopefully those who follow in her footsteps will have the opportunity to prove.
