Harete Hipango

Harete Makere Hipango is a New Zealand politician and former Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the National Party.
Personal life.
Prior to entering parliament, Hipango was a lawyer for more than 25 years and was a member of the Whanganui District Health Board.
Political career.
Member of parliament.
Hipango was selected by the New Zealand National Party to contest at the 2017 general election. She was selected over former "Wanganui Chronicle" general manager Andy Jarden, Whanganui dentist and district councillor Hadleigh Reid and South Taranaki farmer Warwick Fleming. It was the first time the party had chosen a Māori woman to contest a seat it held.
In July 2020, Hipango received considerable media attention when she said that the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was being morally inconsistent by voting to decriminalise abortion and for speaking out on child mortality rates. Hipango also stated that the Abortion Legislation Act 2020 allowed full-term abortions, which was criticised by many as being factually incorrect, as under the legislation two health practitioners must sign off any abortion after 20-weeks.
In September 2020, Hipango posted on social media a false quote attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Hipango defended this false quote by claiming it was a “construction of words” instead.
At the 2020 general election, Hipango was defeated in Whanganui by Labour's Steph Lewis by a margin of 6,800 votes based on preliminary results. Following the release of the full election results on 6 November 2020, this margin increased by 8,191 votes.