National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT:
When a scandal besets a political party, other things tend to stick in freeze-frame mode.
So it has been for the Labour Party website, which all week was frozen in time on Friday, September 6.
The only change since then has been the removal of former Party President Nigel Haworth's name from the list of office holders.
The top article of the "news" is a cheerful roundup from a week ago. It outlined the re-set of housing policy.
How Labour must wish KiwiBuild was still its biggest problem.
On the Monday after that, a Spinoff article outlined an allegation of serious sexual assault against a staffer who had been investigated on a number of complaints and cleared by the party.
The woman making the allegation is adamant she told the party's investigation panel about sexual assualt. The panel is adamant she did not.
It has been almost the sole focus of Ardern's standups and press conferences since.
It has also been the dominant topic for the National Party.
National knows how Labour is feeling.
Back in October 2018, National Party leader Simon Bridges and the caucus were reeling from the dramatic exit of Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross.
Two days after Ross was expelled from the caucus, Newsroom ran a story with four anonymous women accusing Ross of bullying and intimidation.
It led to National doing an internal review into its health and safety processes, and was one of the reasons the Speaker ordered a review into bullying and harrassment across Parliament.
It may or may not be a coincidence that on the same day that Newsroom article was published, a Labour Party official finally replied to a woman who had emailed them six weeks earlier accusing a staffer of "predatory behaviour".
It goes some way to illustrating why PM Jacinda Ardern warned her MPs not to try to make political capital out of National's plight with Ross.
Labour was also still dealing with the allegations of groping and excessive drinking at the Young Labour summer camp, and its messy handling of that.
Ardern repeatedly refused to comment on Ross, saying it was a matter for the National Party.
She also instructed other Labour MPs not to have a dig.
National has not done the same.
National's deputy leader Paula Bennett has been front and centre of this week's saga.
Bennett got into the fray in August after she was contacted by complainants, who said they were frustrated at Labour's inaction.
It will be particularly galling for many in Labour that Bennett was the person those complainants turned to for help.
Bennett is a very unpopular figure for many on the left.
Bennett was likely the choice because she was known to be the one who had dealt with the women accusing Ross, and was outspoken after a review into bullying at Parliament found cases of sexual harrassment.
In that case, Ross was sent on leave very soon after Bennett heard of the allegations, although the reasons were not then publicly known.
Bennett's involvement in the Labour case carries political risk for her and therefore for National.
Ardern's decision to steer clear of the Ross saga was partly self-interest – as a rule voters do not like mucky politics when personal lives are involved.
The Labour case is different, but still opens Bennett up to accusations she is using vulnerable people for politicking.
Labour minister Willie Jackson is among those criticising Bennett for "unethical and unprincipled" attacks.
Jackson pointed out Labour stayed silent throughout the Ross saga, and Bennett should have taken the complainants' cases direct to the Prime Minister rather than go public.
Bennett's response was to point out she was the last resort for the complainants – who felt Ardern had already let them down.
It is always a matter of delicate judgment whether to weigh in on a rival's problems, especially when it involves issues such as sexual assault, young people, or mental health issues.
Bennett's defence to the charge she is playing politics with those people is that those people sought her out because they felt they did not have a voice and she could give it to them.
She believes she could not have stood back and refused to act purely because of the political risk it would backfire on her.
Bennett did not contact the PM's office.
But she talked complainants through options – from going to the police, to an abuse adviser or the Speaker – and offered to help with that. It is understood Bennett also spoke to the Speaker before she went public – although not much before.
She only went public with the say-so of those who contacted her.
Since then several of those people have publicly said her involvement was helpful.
One party member observed that National had done more for them than Labour – and that it felt odd.
Given the political leanings of those involved, it is likely Bennett went further than the complainants were totally happy about – but only in terms of Bennett's attempts to skewer Ardern, rather than how she dealt with the complainants or their issues.
That is the counter to the risks of Bennett getting involved: the benefits to National is in embarrassing Ardern.
Labour may think that the resignation of party President Nigel Haworth is enough, but for National it is a mere trinket.
The aim is the top: Jacinda Ardern.
A good consolation prize would be senior minister Grant Robertson, who has refused to say what he knew beyond saying he had not known of the allegations in the Spinoff.
Ardern is now likely castigating herself for not asking more questions about just where the general claims of sexual assault were coming from after officials had told her it was not a matter before them.
But it seems highly unlikely Ardern was complicit in a cover-up or knew more than she is now letting on. There is as yet no evidence Ardern has lied.
Nonetheless, in the murk of confusion about exactly who knew what it is easy to cast doubt.
Doubt may be all that is required to at least tarnish the hero-worship Ardern has within Labour and her squeaky-clean public image, to show she is no better than the rest of them.
Lest there be any question, National's aim was about more than helping those complainants; soon after Bennett spoke about the case in Parliament National released a video on social media.
There was no direct reference to Labour's plight but the link was clear.
The clip was of Ardern in the Newshub election debate in 2017 answering how she would deal with being caught in a lie.
Two years is a long time in politics. pic.twitter.com/jDfbGWW3Nh
— NZ National Party (@NZNationalParty) September 11, 2019
Ardern's answer was that it was possible to be in politics without lying.
She said politicians made mistakes and it was important to front them and be transparent with the public. But she insisted she had never lied.
The slug-line for the clip was "two years is a long time in politics" and the implication was clear.
Ardern would probably agree with that latter statement, at least.
Labour's website also contains merchandise for sale.
They include badges with one of Ardern's famous sayings from 2017 printed on them: "relentlessly positive".
That attitude may be facing its strongest challenge yet.
The board removed Nigel Simpson as Hawke's Bay chair just one month into the role.