PM restates timeline on sex allegations
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is adamant she was never told about allegations of sexual assault until Monday and ‘‘absolutely refuted’’ claims made by the Opposition that her senior staff and Finance Minister Grant Robertson knew months ago.
National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett claimed in Parliament that Robertson and Ardern’s former chief of staff, Mike Munro, chief press secretary Andrew Campbell and director of her leader’s office, Rob Salmond, knew about the allegations of a sexual assault by a Labour Party staffer.
Bennett said she therefore could not believe Ardern had not been told.
When asked about the claims, Ardern said: ‘‘Some of those allegations that I have heard I just absolutely refute’’.
Yesterday, she emailed a letter to Labour Party members acknowledging the party needed to be an organisation that admits when mistakes have been made and advised members to contact the general secretary or email her, if they wanted to talk about the allegations.
Pressure is now being put on Ardern to say what she knew and when, so she held a press conference yesterday to reaffirm her timeline of events.
She told reporters that Monday was the first time she had ever seen a complainant state they had taken a complaint of a serious sexual assault to the
Labour Party. She saw ‘‘concerning’’ emails for the first time on Wednesday relating to this, which confirmed to her the complaints were very serious and harm had been done, she said.
Later on Wednesday, Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned over his handling of the sexual assault allegations.
Ardern side-stepped questions about whether she was misled by Haworth. Instead of answering directly, she said: ‘‘I can’t speak for those involved in that process, they continue to maintain their position’’.
She said she was first made aware of complaints five weeks ago when she saw ‘‘speculation’’ in the media.
The speculation she is referring to is likely to relate to an August 5 story by Newshub, which reported the Labour Party had been forced to review an internal investigation into bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault by a Labour staffer.
The alleged victims told Newshub the investigation process was botched and traumatising for them and the party had done nothing to improve its processes.
Following this report, Ardern said she then sought assurances from the Labour Party that the complaints were not of a sexual nature and was told they were not.
Ardern said the media reports still concerned her, so she then attended the first Labour Party council meeting after the news broke. She went with two ‘‘clear intentions’’ that included putting a third party in place to deal with the process, which she said was to give the complainants a sense of security that someone outside the party would hear them and Queen’s Counsel Maria Dew was appointed.
Her other intention was to seek assurances the party would never investigate complaints of a serious nature – that they would be dealt with externally.