Second scandal looks careless

The Labour-led coalition’s honeymoon was relatively short-lived. After the hope and stardust of the 2017 election, some Labour supporters came crashing down to earth in early 2018 when allegations were made of sexual assaults at a party youth camp near Waihi.

A picture emerged of unsupervised young people with access to alcohol. This month, a young man pleaded guilty to two charges of assault and will be sentenced in November.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, at the camp the day before the assaults occurred, expressed her deep dismay and disappointment once the allegations became public. It was also clear the party had failed to handle the complaints properly and new policies were devised.

Ardern’s empathy and sensitivity are her strongest political assets. The public responds to her warmth and personal sincerity. But further allegations of sexual assault, this time by a Labour staffer, are starting to test even the most loyal supporters. Again, the complaints seem to have been poorly handled.

Stuff reported this week that a 19-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted on two occasions by a staffer with ‘‘strong influence’’ in the party. It took a year after the second alleged assault before the party eventually launched an investigation into multiple complaints.

The situation is complicated by the nature of the man’s employment. He works for the Labour Leader’s Office but is technically a public servant employed by Parliamentary Service, which has been unable to investigate as no complaint was made to it.

There are questions about why Ardern was repeatedly assured the allegations were not sexual. The complainant claims she told Labour Party president Nigel Haworth and assistant general

secretary Dianna Lacy of the sexual nature of the assaults, but Haworth insists he and Lacy were not told. If it was the former, has the party been keeping the full story from its leader?

At her post-Cabinet press conference, Ardern said she wanted ‘‘to make it very clear that I am deeply concerned and incredibly frustrated by the process that has been undertaken by the Labour Party, but also obviously by the nature of the allegations’’.

It seems improbable Haworth can continue as party president. An open letter to Ardern from party members calls for him to make a formal apology and resign. Other suggestions include further policy changes and a ban on the alleged attacker attending party events.

The authors say they have looked up to Ardern as ‘‘a champion of women, survivors and other marginalised people’’, and if she were to address the matter with the urgency and decency required, that would ‘‘justify the faith that so many place in you’’.

The open letter makes it clear that much of Labour’s political capital is embodied by Ardern. The downside of having so much invested in a leader is that disappointment is also highly personalised.

That said, Ardern is familiar with how the story must play out. As an Opposition MP in 2016, commenting on scandals involving the Chiefs rugby team and advertising guru Kevin Roberts, Ardern wrote that a resignation is not enough. ‘‘These conversations stop the moment there’s a resignation,’’ she wrote. ‘‘It’s the PR quick fix – usher the source of the controversy away. But that solves nothing.

‘‘After all, apologies followed by silence changes nothing, and change is what we need.’’

True words then, and now.

The downside of having so much invested in a leader is that disappointment is also highly personalised.