Another national party MP admits lying over fake door knock campaign

A South Island MP has apologised for a social post in which he claimed to have door-knocked people to get petition signatures.

National's Hamish Walker, who represents Clutha Southland, posted a picture on Facebook of him standing in the middle of Oakland St, Mataura, holding a blue clipboard.

"In Mataura today I went door to door gathering signatures for a petition requesting the Government fast track the removal of the dross started by Mark Patterson," the post, uploaded on Monday at 6.58pm, said.

Clutha Southland MP Hamish Walker posted this to Facebook on Monday night, claiming he was door-knocking for petition signatures.

NZ First List MP Mark Patterson launched a petition on Monday, calling on the Government to take any means necessary to remove the aluminium dross from the Mataura paper mill and relocate it to Tiwai Point. Aluminium manufacturer Rio Tinto backed out of a deal to remove the 9500 tonnes of ouvea premix, which produces ammonia gas if it gets wet.

Both MPs were at the petition launch, but Walker left for a meeting before official copies of the petition were circulated, sources confirmed.

Walker's post was removed on Friday afternoon after questions were raised by Stuff. He confirmed the photograph was taken in advance of the meeting "to ensure the photograph wasn't missed".

He said the post was meant to go up later that night, but the door-knocking did not go ahead as planned, due to the petition arriving later. The post wasn't rescheduled "when it should have been".

"I apologise for this mistake and will continue to fight for the community on this issue."

NZ First List MP Mark Patterson launches a petition in Mataura to rid the town of Ouvea Premix, which is housed in the unused Mataura paper mill building. Clutha Southland MP Hamish Walker can be seen in the background.

His early exit from the launch and subsequent Facebook post raised the ire of Laurel Turnbull, of the Sort The Dross action group, who started her own investigation.

She had made appeals to people of Mataura, who may have signed Walker's petition to come forward – but no-one had.

Undeterred, Turnbull went door-to-door along Oakland St and several nearby streets on Thursday night to check with residents if they had signed a petition. No-one had.

Sort Out The Dross spokesperson Laurel Turnbull was the first to sign the petition, with Carl Energiser waiting on left. The petition calls for the ouvea premix being stored in Mataura to be moved to Tiwai Point.

Turnbull said she wasn't aligned with a political party: "I just don't want him to take credit for something that he is not part of."

More than 1100 people had signed the petition, she said.

Rio Tinto remains in talks with the Government about the fate of the premix, which was left in Mataura when Taha Asia Pacific went into receivership in 2016.

Stuff