Notorious heckler Karl Mokaraka interrupts Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s speech in Auckland

Thursday, 19 February 2026

Serial heckler Karl Mokaraka has made another appearance at a political event, this time interrupting Housing Minister Chris Bishop’s speech in Auckland on Thursday.

Mokaraka, a candidate for the Destiny Church-linked Vision NZ party in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate at the last election, has disrupted a number of events in recent years.

In August 2023, he popped up from behind a fence to draw attention away from National’s Christopher Luxon and Simeon Brown, who were holding a press conference in Pakuranga.

At a Tāmaki Makaurau by-election debate between Labour’s Peeni Henare and Te Pati Māori’s Oriini Kaipara at Ngā Whare Waatea Marae last year, Mokaraka took umbrage that Vision NZ candidate Hannah Tamaki was not invited to appear.

On Thursday, he showed up again, talking over Bishop as the minister announced a watering down of Auckland’s housing intensification capacity.

Mokaraka questioned Bishop about housing issues in South Auckland, saying many people in the area lived in poverty. He asked for assurances from the minister that the area wouldn’t be a “dumping ground” of transitional housing.

Bishop listened to Mokaraka and said they could discuss the matter privately. South Auckland was seeing a “massive urban regeneration programme” under Kāinga Ora, Bishop added.

After a back-and-forth that went on for a number of minutes, Mokaraka thanked Bishop and left the room.