Trying to salvage public trust

Ardern, Collins dealing with baggage after MPs’ sexting and affair

Political leaders are wrestling to try to salvage public trust in Parliament after the sacking of minister Iain LeesGalloway for an extramarital affair, and a new police investigation into National MP Andrew Falloon over lewd text messages.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday said Parliament had not been meeting the expectation of the public in recent days.

It now fell to MPs on both sides of the political spectrum to “restore people’s faith in our system”.

“Ultimately, we do need to take responsibility for making Parliament a place that people can have some faith in, and a bit of trust in,” she told the Country, a NewstalkZB rural programme.

National Party leader Judith Collins also issued a call for a clean-up, saying New Zealanders were “clearly sick of people like Andrew Falloon”.

Asked if the election campaign was gearing up to be a grubby one, Collins said no. “I think we can get rid of the people out of Parliament who have been actually quite revolting in their behaviours.”

Collins said yesterday that a fifth woman had now alerted her to inappropriate messages from Falloon.

Yesterday, police also confirmed they had re-opened the investigation into Falloon’s actions.

The number of women who say they have received these types of messages from the disgraced MP was now “at least” five, according to Collins.

Police had previously investigated a complaint about the sending of the first unsolicited image, but it wasn’t found to meet the threshold for prosecution.

Collins called for anyone else who had received inappropriate messages from Falloon to come forward.

“The more women who come forward to the police, the more evidence the police will have,” she said.

Falloon resigned as an MP on Tuesday morning, after revelations he had sent sexual images to a teenage university student.

He had indicated that he would stay on until the election but he stood down after pressure from Collins.

“People involved in this type of behaviour, that he’s clearly indulged in, are manipulative.”

Speaking yesterday afternoon,

Ardern said her campaign would be focused on policies, not personalities. She said when she became the leader of the Labour Party three years ago she had pledged Labour would “conduct itself during elections, and during parliamentary terms, with integrity”. “It is up to us to uphold that and it’s the only way we will restore people’s faith in our system . . . and to ensure that we act with integrity.

“We know what the public expects of us, now we’ve just got to make sure we’re doing that and we display that during election periods as well.”

On Wednesday, Ardern announced she had sacked Lees-Galloway from Cabinet and stripped him of his ministerial portfolios after he admitted to a year-long extramarital affair with a former staffer.

At Ardern’s request, Ministerial Services is now going back over the use of public funds in Lees-Galloway’s office to ensure none was used inappropriately.

A spokesperson for Ministerial Services confirmed that review, saying the majority of that data had already been reviewed as part of standard quarterly ministerial expenditure checks.

It is also possible there will be checks to ensure Lees-Galloway did not use his position to secure any roles, or to disadvantage or advantage the woman.

It is understood she now lives in the United Kingdom, and is no longer employed by any New Zealand government agency.

Lees-Galloway — who is married with three children — admitted he acted “completely inappropriately”.

Ardern was clear yesterday that Lees-Galloway’s position was untenable because he was the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, and he had opened himself up to accusations of improperly using his power.

The statement about improper use of power prompted Collins to question whether Ardern knew something that was not public.

Ardern confirmed that she had spoken to Lees-Galloway since her press conference on Wednesday.

“Essentially just as a follow-up after the announcements, but not to discuss anything substantial.”

She also revealed she did not know the information her office received was about Falloon.

“I was very explicit, I did not want to know who was involved — I just wanted to go directly to the leader of the Opposition and say nothing of it, and leave it there.”

She said that is how these things should be handled.

“Don’t play them out publicly, give them to the people who can do something about it and act with integrity.”

We do need to take responsibility for making Parliament a place that people can have some faith in.

PM Jacinda Ardern