Allegedly, according to National party leader Paula Bennett, there is a sex pest/predator preying on some female employees who work in the parliamentary precinct. Allegedly these women went to Bennett to ask for help because allegedly the Labour party have told them that he is too important to be dealt with and that they will just have to try to avoid bumping into him.
Ardern has tried to avoid responsibility by dancing on the head of a pin.
Complainants whose allegations of improper behaviour were dismissed by the Labour Party have been granted an independent appeal, along with funding for legal advice.
[…] It followed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s comments this afternoon that there should be an independent expert to look into serious complaints against the party.
Seven formal complaints were laid with the party and up to 12 people made general complaints about a Labour staffer who works in the parliamentary precinct.
The Labour Party looked into the complaints in March but took no disciplinary action, but the party decided to review its processes after further complaints were laid.
Three of the complainants approached National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett, who said they felt fearful, intimidated, and not taken seriously.
“They’ve have been told to keep quiet about what’s going on, that it should be kept as an internal process, advised not to go to the police. They feel they are losing all options and actually losing hope,” Bennett said last week.
Speaking at her post-Cabinet press conference today, Ardern said that a neutral independent body should be brought in to investigate complaints to the Labour Party in some cases.
[…] Bennett said Ardern’s comments today seemed like a step forward.
“They felt intimidation and bullying, that the alleged perpetrator was too valuable and had senior MPs protecting him, so this sounds like a step forward,” Bennett told the Herald.
But she said she was giving cautious approval as she did not know the detail of the proposal.
The current allegations followed ones of sexual harassment in February last year following a Young Labour summer camp.
A 20-year-old man was charged with four counts of indecent assault at the Waihi camp.
Ardern said last week that the current review was a test to see what the party had learned.
It seems to me that they have learned nothing and yet another review is not going to help the women currently complaining about the alleged sex pest. Reviews are being used by this government to kick scandals down the road and to give the public time to forget what happened.
Instead of continuing to subject these women to working with the man day in and day out he should be stood down on full pay pending the investigation or at the very least he should be warned that if he goes anywhere near any of the complainants that he will be stood down immediately.
Sources allege that the alleged scumbag works in Bowen House in the Labour Leader’s Office. Last time I checked Jacinda Ardern was the Labour leader and working in the Leader’s office means that he is paid by parliamentary services. Ardern, therefore, has the responsibility to do something about this NOW and to not kick the can down the road to yet another review.
