Hastings council candidates linked to anti-vax, anti-mandate movements – Stuff

One Hastings District Council candidate believes local body politics has been infiltrated by the United Nations, while another – a Destiny Church pastor – has organised previous anti-mandate events in the region.

Melanie Petrowski first ran for council in 2019 gaining 358 votes before running as the Tukituki candidate for One Party, a Christian fundamentalist political party, in the 2020 general election. She received 175 votes.

This year she’s making a bid for a Hastings-Havelock North ward seat on Hastings District Council.

Petrowski said during the past two years she had seen the “overarching of globalism” of groups like the United Nations “infiltrate local councils” – a commonly held view among local government candidates with connections to anti-vax group Voices for Freedom (VFF).

Though she is running as an independent, she acknowledges she is “loosely affiliated” with VFF.

“I know of them. I think they do a really great job. They’re great people; they’re ordinary people.”

She described the three women behind VFF, Claire Deeks, Alia Bland and Libby Jonson, as “three lovely ladies who just want freedom and choice for their families”.

She said such groups had no influence on her decision to stand though and she would have run anyway.

Petrowski, who is unvaccinated and described the vaccine as a “poison”, said she lost two jobs due to the mandates. “I don’t know why it’s such a big deal. It’s such a personal medical decision.”

She attended part of the Wellington Parliamentary occuppation but did not attend last week’s protest.

Her Facebook candidate page doesn’t make specific mention of her Covid-19 views, though she has shared a previous article about losing her job. There are two posts relating to her views about the UN.

Petrowski has said she will call for a recount if she is not elected.

Michael “Mike” Ngahuka (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Ranginui)​ has wanted to stand for council for several years having previously worked with outgoing and longstanding Flaxmere councillor Henare O’Keefe​.

Ngahuka, a pastor at Destiny Church, has also helped organise and manage the Hawke’s Bay branch of the Freedom & Rights Coalition (FRC). Neither of these things had influenced his decision to run for council though, he said.

He said he became involved with FRC because the vaccine mandate had prevented his daughter – who has underlying medical conditions – attending the school she wanted because she was unvaccinated. He said she was granted an official Covid-19 vaccine exemption, but the school would not accept it.

Ngahuka said he was vaccinated, but admits he doesn’t like being told what to do.

“I’m not against the vaccine and the FRC has never been against the vaccine. It’s more about the mandates. If there are medicines and vaccines that are safe, then go for it.”

Ngahuka confirmed he attended both the Wellington Parliamentary occupation and last week’s protest. The difference between the two events could be attributed to each group’s leadership and the different “freedoms families”, he said.

He said some could be “a bit radical” but he didn’t support any “radical behaviour where violence is concerned”, nor did he buy into conspiracy theories.

“I’m not led by those. That’s the sort of radical fringe group in the freedoms family.”

Ngahuka said he was not affiliated with VFF – they did their own thing – but in his dealings with them, he said he had found them to be “quite placid” and “inward”.

His personal Facebook page does not contain Covid-19 disinformation, but does include various posts relating to the FRC movement.

Stuff asked all council candidates in Hastings if they had any affiliation with VFF after Stuff Circuit revealed the anti-vaccine group called on its 100,000 members to make the country “ungovernable”.

The organisation said it was supporting candidates in local body elections to “sway the results (and) throw our weight around”.

None of the other Hastings District Council candidates said they supported VFF, although Flaxmere ward candidate Marcelle Raheke​ said she was not vaccinated and had attended the FRC protest in Napier last year.

Takitiumu Māori ward candidate Kiri Godspeed​ declined to comment about vaccines, as did returned Heretaunga candidate Alwyn Corban​ who questioned how it was relevant and said “my views on vaccination are my own views and nothing to do with local government”.

When asked, all three said they had no links to VFF.