More on the Kandallah protesters

We blogged earlier this morning in support of Peter Dunne's trenchant criticism of those protesting outside his home in Kandallah.

But as the morning has gone on, we've had some interesting information sent to us about the protest spokewoman, Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati.

We thought that the name was familiar, so we searched our own archives. And we found a post that we'd done on the mysterious People Power Ohariu group in April 2012 which revealed that the group was nothing more than a collection of hard-left activists masquerading as concerned citizens. People Power Ohariu had a strong connection to the Mana Party, by way of Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati and others.

That in itself didn't justify a second post. But when we received an e-mail from someone on the Left with a link that it was suggested we follow, that changed. Under the heading Political prostitution - Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati's devious, deceitful agenda exposed: the Transparency in New Zealand - Kiwikileaks blog (not a blog we would normally read, or were even aware of!) reports thus:

This is the work of a nasty woman called Ariana Paretututanganui -Tamati, pictured, at left - a devious, sleazy, conniving, deceitful, liar, who is attempting to infiltrate and undermine the Wellington protest against the GCSB Bill and hijack it for her own personal agenda.
She has undermined and sabotaged all the efforts of the people who HAVE been organising the Wellington protest against the GCSB Bill this Saturday, while she's been doing nothing but wasting time and causing trouble - here's the latest evidence of her work - she and her low life mates have been reporting this perfectly innocuous post on the Wellington Event page (at the link above) in a co-ordinated, targeted attack in order to achieve the post being removed and me blocked from facebook - the post being the order of ceremonies for the Wellington event - which I am the Host of!
Who is behind this really - who is incentivising her to try and derail our peaceful protest with her nut bar friends talking about blocking roads and other violent action, and grandstanding for her own political agenda.
She previously deleted all the files on the organisers page - the list of speakers, the order of ceremonies, the fliers, the list of events, the outline of the skit, etc, she's lied and claimed other people's work as her own - she's a prize cow.  She's standing for the Mana party apparently - come along on Saturday and listen to her make a fool of herself.  

There's a whole lot more in this post that's worth a read, but it is clear that Ms Paretutanganui-Tamati raises hackles wherever she pops up; even within Wellington's activist community. That confirms the suspicion that she and her fellow travelers are a fringe group; when even a left-wing activist refers to "she and her low-life mates", it's clear that they are a pretty contemptuous bunch.

That makes Peter Dunne's criticism of the group even more valid. People who try to use MPs' families to push their particular agenda deserve nothing but opprobrium, in our ever-humble opinion.