Unbelievably, the Mongrel Mob drama is still rolling on. It's been six days.

A video has emerged from the hui at the gang pad in which Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara tells the Mongrel Mob that Te Pāti Māori's policies would reinstate what should have existed all along.

Depending on how you interpret that statement and the context of what she had been discussing beforehand, she was either suggesting that Te Pāti Māori's policies would reinstate housing support for gang members or restore the mana of gang members. Either way, neither is likely to be a priority for most voters.

But it gets worse. The video appears to show that the hui was a campaign event, with parties effectively seeking votes. That directly contradicts what the Green Party claimed. They said it was a health and wellbeing promotion day. It certainly does not look that way.

It gets worse again because Oriini Kaipara has now given an interview defending her actions, in which she says she is more concerned about MPs in suits pushing policy changes relating to the Waitangi Tribunal than she is about gang members.

And it gets worse yet, if you can believe it. Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, the daughter of John Tamihere and wife of Rawiri Waititi, has posted an Instagram video criticising Labour for condemning meetings with gang members who are whānau.

You do not need me to tell you that this is bad. Just when Chris Hipkins finally got on the phone to Marama Davidson and, by all appearances, told the Greens to stop talking about it, which they largely did by the end of last week, Te Pāti Māori decided to weigh in.

This is damaging for the left because swing voters generally dislike gangs, which can push them towards the right. At the moment, both sides are competing for roughly 15 percent of voters who remain undecided or persuadable.

It also drowns out everything the Labour Party and the Green Party are trying to say. While this story remains in the headlines, any policy announcement they make will be overshadowed by questions about gangs. Every day the controversy continues is another day spent answering questions about gangs.

It is remarkable that the Greens and Te Pāti Māori appear to be taking turns digging this hole even deeper for themselves.

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