October 20, 2021
Peters backs down on Tam claim
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has apologised to Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam for claiming he improperly crossed the Auckland-Northland Alert Level 3 boundary with women who later tested positive for COVID-19.
Mr Tam, who had been given an exemption to travel to Auckland to help contain the outbreak among gang whānau in the city, had taken legal action against the veteran politician.
Mr Peters says he made the comments based on information from a “reliable and credible source”, which he now accepts was wrong.
He’s still concerned about how people were wrongly able to cross from Auckland’s alert level border to Northland under false essential worker status and cause a lockdown.
Northland moved back to alert level 2 this week