Harete Hipango

Harete Makere Hipango[1] is a New Zealand politician and former Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party.

Harete Hipango
Hipango in 2019
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Whanganui
In office
23 September 2017 – 17 October 2020
Preceded byChester Borrows
Succeeded bySteph Lewis
Personal details
Political partyNational

Personal life

Prior to entering parliament, Hipango was a lawyer for more than 25 years and was a member of the Whanganui District Health Board.[2]

Political career

Member of parliament
New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2017–2020 52nd Whanganui 62 National

Hipango was selected by the New Zealand National Party to contest Whanganui at the 2017 general election. She was selected over former Wanganui Chronicle general manager Andy Jarden, Whanganui dentist and district councillor Hadleigh Reid and South Taranaki farmer Warwick Fleming. It was the first time the party had chosen a Māori woman to contest a seat it held.[3]

In July 2020, Hipango received considerable media attention when she said that the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was being morally inconsistent by voting to decriminalise abortion and for speaking out on child mortality rates.[4][5] Hipango also stated that the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 allowed full-term abortions, which was criticised by many as being factually incorrect, as under the legislation two health practitioners must sign off any abortion after 20-weeks.[6]

In September 2020, Hipango posted on social media a false quote attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Hipango defended this false quote by claiming it was a “construction of words” instead.[7]

At the 2020 general election, Hipango was defeated in Whanganui by Labour's Steph Lewis by a margin of 6,800 votes based on preliminary results.[8] Following the release of the full election results on 6 November 2020, this margin increased by 8,191 votes.[9]

References
  1. "Daily progress for Tuesday, 7 November 2017". New Zealand Parliament. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. Groenestein, Catherine (25 March 2017). "National selects Harete Hipango as candidate for Whanganui". Taranaki Daily News. Stuff. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019.
  3. Stolwell, Luarel (26 March 2017). "Harete Hipango is National Party's Whanganui candidate". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  4. Feek, Amelia Wade and Belinda (28 July 2020). "PM's abortion stance 'rank' – National MPs viral post, views differ with Collins". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  5. "National MPs' full term abortion claims 'silly' – Andrew Little". Radio New Zealand. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  6. "Jacinda Ardern asks for 'views based on fact' after National MP Harete Hipango accuses her of backing full-term abortions". Newshub. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  7. Griffiths, Ethan (24 September 2020). "Whanganui MP Harete Hipango defends posting false Jacinda Ardern quote". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020.
  8. Heagney, George (17 October 2020). "Election 2020: Labour flips Whanganui red as Steph Lewis claims seat". Stuff. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  9. "Whanganui - Official Result". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
New Zealand Parliament
Preceded by
Chester Borrows		 Member of Parliament for Whanganui
2017–2020		 Succeeded by
Steph Lewis
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.