Anyone who’s ever been the victim of a home invasion needs to avoid seeing the latest election campaign ad from the Taxpayers’ Union.

It’s the latest in a series of attack ads from this outfit. Alongside all the other negative advertising out there from some of the actual political parties.

But this one takes it to the next level.

What they’ve done, is they’ve used AI to create a video which shows Labour leader Chris Hipkins kicking down the doors at people's homes, rushing in and helping himself to their wallets and cash.

The objective is to show how much of a money grab Labour’s capital gains tax would be.

The part that I find most disturbing, is where the Chris Hipkins character kicks in the door of an elderly woman’s home while she’s sitting on the couch.

The Hipkins character then grabs money sitting on the TV cabinet and takes off, leaving the woman sitting there like a stunned mullet.

That’s why I’m saying that anyone who’s ever been the victim of a home invasion needs to avoid seeing this thing. Because I’m in no doubt that it will be triggering for some people.

Which is why I think it is the most bad taste election campaign ad I’ve ever seen.

I’m not the only one who feels that way.

David Cormack owns Cormack PR and he’s told the NZ Herald that the ad is “revolting”. He uses some other words too. But I’m not going to repeat them.

He’s saying today: “The Taxpayers Union is putting Hipkins at the scene of a robbery. There’s a difference between saying someone will cost you money and depicting them stealing from your wallet.”

He says: “They’ve turned a tax argument into a home invasion.”

And that is what makes this ad so appalling. Say what you like about Chris Hipkins, but don’t use something so terrifying, like a home invasion, to make a political point.

But, as I said earlier, the Taxpayers’ Union will accuse me of overreacting.

I know that, because Jordan Williams from the Union called me this morning to say it was just satire.

After telling the NZ Herald: “AI is so good now we have to artistically make it so over the top to make it clear that it is done in humour rather than for someone to take it seriously.”

He said: “I got advice on this ad and the lawyer’s advice was that no one’s going to look at this and think it’s genuinely Chris Hipkins because it’s so over the top.”

But I’m sorry Jordan. Negative political ads have had their day. And appalling ads like this one should never see the light of day.

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This week's Politics Friday Election Special focused on the Banks Peninsula electorate.

The candidates, Vanessa Weenink from National, and Tracey McLellan from Labour, made their pitch about why they want to become the next local MP.

They discussed the tight 2023 election result, which was decided by just 396 votes, and the key issues facing the electorate, including coastal erosion, un-swimmable beaches, and how they feel about the potential for the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Centre to attract aerospace and defence-related investment and contracts.

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Let me say from the get-go that I despise gang culture and everything it stands for and represents.

I despise gangs for the misery they inflict on people with their drug dealing and the way they treat the people desperate for the poison they peddle.

I despise gangs for the other heinous crimes they are associated with. Their appalling “initiation” processes. All of that. I have zero time for it.

Let me also say from the get-go that the three MPs and a candidate from the Greens and Te Pāti Māori who visited a Mongrel Mob pad, south of Auckland, picked the worst possible time to do it.

It’s the worst possible time because we’re in the middle of an election campaign and any claim that they were there to, you know, “discuss the issues” is just nonsense.

They were there to get votes. Plain and simple.

So I hate gangs, and I think these four from the Greens and Te Pāti Māori have cocked up big time.

But…

Despite what you or I might think about gangs, isn’t it better that politicians engage with them in some way, shape or form?

I’m talking about politicians engaging genuinely with gang members. Not with the objective of getting elected, but with the objective of trying to show gang members that there is an alternative way to live.

It’s been done before. The most obvious example is National Prime Minister Sir Rob Muldoon. You never hear people slagging him off for spending time with gang members. But that’s what he did. In particular, Black Power.

Doing things like helping gang members find accommodation and setting up subsidised work schemes for them.

His thinking was that finding gang members work cutting firewood or getting painting contracts would put them on the straight and narrow. And they loved him for that.

And these gang members didn’t just come to him. He went to them, as well. Drinking with them at gang pads and everything.

There’s even a story about him throwing the dregs of his whiskey at a gang member who had been flicking beer at him.

And then, when he died, about 100 Black Power guys turned up at his state funeral at the Auckland Town Hall in August 1992 and honoured him with a haka.

The following month, after a memorial service in Wellington, his wife, Dame Thea, even spent time with Black Power gang members.

The doubters will point to the fact that, despite Sir Rob’s efforts, gangs have continued to grow. And they’d be right.

But this is where Merepeka Raukawa-Tait comes into it. She used to run Women’s Refuge. These days she chairs Whānau Ora and is an advocate for women and children.

Before the last election, when National was touting its crackdown on gangs, she wrote a piece in the NZ Herald about Muldoon.

She said his relationship with gangs did work. For a while. Until the work contracts dried up and the gang members, as she put it, “turned back to doing what they do best: surviving on the proceeds of crime.”

But she also said this in her article: “I think Sir Robert Muldoon had the right idea: engage with the gangs and understand that whānau is whānau - whether gang whānau or otherwise.”

What she was getting at there is that whether you and I can get our heads around it or not, gangs provide a sense of belonging. A sense of whānau.

And we can choose to reject that or cover our ears and ignore it. Because you, like me, probably don’t have any time for gangs. But that’s reality.

We go on all the time about politicians not being in touch with reality.

So what’s so bad about politicians getting more in tune with the realities of gang life?

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