NZ First candidate questions media focus on old tweets over family violence and youth suicide

Summarised by Centrist

NZ First’s Takanini candidate Elliot Ikilei has questioned why his 2022 comments about Andrew Tate are “more urgent than fatherlessness, family violence, youth suicide, and the collapse of two-parent homes in the communities I actually work in”.

“If four-year-old posts are the best that can be fished up, that tells its own story. I would rather talk about the pain in front of us: broken homes, a broken economy, and broken trust in the fourth estate.”

Stuff’s Paula Penfold questioned Ikilei about posts calling Tate “awesome” and “useful for many young men”. Some original posts he was replying to are no longer online.

The quoted praise preceded Tate’s detention in Romania in late December 2022. Penfold reports that Tate now faces charges including rape, assault and trafficking, which he vehemently denies.

Ikilei said he “tuned out” when Tate’s content became more arrogant and anti-woman.

“I do not hold Andrew Tate up as a model for New Zealand boys, for my own son, or for the families I work with,” he said.

“Strong families are built on marriage, duty, protection of the vulnerable, and self-control – not on internet swagger.”

Ikilei also took aim at selective media scrutiny: “I hold the view that media pile-ons are selective.”

NZ First defended Ikilei’s freedom of opinion and speech, saying the party was “not some sort of Gestapo word-police”.

Read more at Stuff

Receive our free newsletter here