Labour plans probe into interns debacle

A member of Labour’s ruling council with links to the interns debacle has stood down, and the party is planning an investigation into how the scheme got out of hand.

Labour Leader Andrew Little yesterday said Paul Chalmers, who was connected with the scheme, had voluntarily stood down over the weekend ‘‘and he is not involved in the governing council of the party at this point’’.

Little said it was also possible the party would have to cover some of the costs of the plan masterminded by Little’s former chief of staff Matt Mccarten, who more recently was Little’s Auckland organiser but stood down from that role in mid May when his contract ended and was not renewed.

Little said the 85 who had signed up for the volunteer internships to help with campaigning were more than the party could handle. It had got ‘‘wildly out of control’’. But it was not uncommon for a handful of interns to come during campaigns, for instance from Australia, the UK and the United States.

Little said the idea was raised with him at the start of the year and he had said it was a party issue and campaigning matter. He had not been kept in the loop since then, but became aware in May that a couple of students coming had contacted the party to say they were due to arrive.

At that point party representatives spoke to those involved, because they knew nothing about it. They were given assurances but no numbers were given.

‘‘They were told it was funded and supported and there would be a programme for them.’’

He was briefed about 10 days ago when compliants came in from the interns.

Mccarten’s original plan was to have union funding, but it seems that was not forthcoming. A big donor did back the plan, but their identity has not been released to the party or to the public.

Little said the party had disclosure obligations, both in terms of donors and spending. The party was dealing with that.

Mccarten had also floated the idea of bringing in a reverend from the United States - dubbed ‘‘souls for the polls’’ to unify the Ratana and Pasifika churches and turn out voters. Little said Mccarten’s plan - which he has named a ‘‘Campaign for Change’’ - was one of those ‘‘ginger groups’’ that pop up from time to time. He described Mccarten’s ideas as ‘‘fantasy world stuff’’.

Mccarten’s employment had ended in May. He had earlier told Little there were campaign issues he wanted to be involved in and Little had said he could not remain on Little’s leader’s budget payroll while he was campaigning.

The party’s priority now was to look after those interns, some of whom complained about the programme and the facilities at the Auckland marae where they stayed. About 60 remained in the country and were being billeted with party members and activists.

Two paid party organisers in Auckland were also involved with Mccarten’s intern scheme.

‘‘There are some questions to get answers to about how we got into this situation - that will involve those people and they have to be given a chance to speak, but I am not going to get ahead of what the party has to do in terms of getting answers to those questions,’’ Little said. ’’Part of the answers that the party has to get is how did it get to that point and how did others who were involved allow it to get to that point.’’

The party is working through issues raised by the programme, including whether any rules were broken with the visas the interns were on. Little said the party had a moral responsibility to look after creditors and suppliers because there was the ‘‘potential’’ for a shortfall in funding raised for the intern scheme.