Karl Mokoraka heckling David Seymour at the ACT campaign rally in Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Anneke Smith
Another political party's rally has been disrupted - with the heckler at ACT's campaign launch today the same man who has interrupted the Labour and National leaders in the past few weeks.
ACT leader David Seymour was not long into his speech in front of hundreds of the party's supporters at the Civic in Auckland today when he was heckled by Karl Mokoraka from Freedoms NZ.
Seymour carried on with his speech as security staff tried to evict Mokoraka which took several minutes.
Some members of the crowd used Party Vote ACT signs to shield him from the cameras.
During their intervention one supporter lashed out at the media filming the incident, physically hitting a cameraman.
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Mokoraka was the man who poked his head over a fence and stopped National leader Christopher Luxon's media briefing after his final Get New Zealand Back on Track rally in Auckland on 28 August.
A week earlier he followed Labour leader Chris Hipkins around the Ōtara Markets speaking through a loudhailer and accompanied by other protesters who made enough noise to drown out Hipkins.
After today's rally, Seymour told media that due to the lighting he couldn't see a lot of what was happening in the rally.
When he was told about the cameraman incident, he said police would need to investigate and if anyone was found guilty of assault then they would be tossed out of ACT.
He apologised to news media and said it was unacceptable for anyone to abuse them.
"I'm so disappointed by that one person who could actually disrupt what was a positive event. I think that led to further incidents which I apologise for on behalf of whoever it was and we will cooperate to try and track down anyone that has offended or harmed anybody."
He was further critical of Mokoraka's actions.
"If a person can come and interrupt our meeting by protesting like that then I think other people equally have the right to peacefully prevent them from succeeding in their goal."
David Seymour speaks to journalists after the launch. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
Outside the Civic, Mokoraka told reporters political parties were out of touch and forgot about communities in South Auckland.
He denied he had been disrupting the event and described his role as trying to air the concerns of all New Zealanders.
"There's no moral values here so we want to stand for every Māori and Pasifika."
He accused the mainstream parties of being out of touch while the current government had hijacked Kiwis' rights, he said.
"They're all out of touch; I'm challenging David Seymour when he gets into government that he makes decisions that represent us all, not just Epsom, but represents all people."
He said he had never seen Seymour on the ground among people he was trying to be the voice for in South Auckland.
Meanwhile, ACT is promising to end co-governance, which it claims comes at the expense of universal human rights.
Seymour said ACT would legislate that the principles of the Treaty were based on what the Treaty actually says rather than "revisionist interpretations".
