Sexual harassment claims: Labour president Nigel Haworth says party has behaved 'appropriately throughout process'

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Labour Party president Nigel Haworth.

Labour Party president Nigel Haworth says the party has done nothing wrong despite reviewing its processes after complaints about bullying and sexual harassment.

Seven people have reportedly laid complaints about bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault by a parliamentary staffer working for the Labour Party.

No disciplinary action was taken following the party's internal investigation in March this year, but further complaints about the investigation has led the party to review those processes.

Despite that, Haworth told MediaWorks that he was "confident the party's behaved absolutely appropriately throughout that process".

Two of the complainants told MediaWorks that they had now left the Labour Party.

"I don't want to be part of an organisation that allows abuse to happen to people," said one, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another said: "It was just like they were trying to protect [the accused] trying to protect someone higher up and just silence us".

The complainants told MediaWorks that there had been a lack of communication, unacceptable delays in responding to them, and that they weren't shown transcripts of their interviews to check for accuracy before they went to the alleged offender.

Haworth disputed this, telling MediaWorks: "I'm very clear that we have communicated extensively widely and consistently with those people."

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday that the Labour needed to be "open to the fact that we don't always get it right".

Allegations of sexual harassment rocked the party following a Young Labour summer camp in February last year.

A 20-year-old man was charged with four counts of indecent assault at the Waihi camp.

It led to an independent review of the party's processes, and while that review has not been released due to the ongoing legal action, its recommendations were made public.

These included developing policies on sexual harassment, sexual assault, alcohol, events, host responsibility and bullying.

Ardern said that the party had "absolutely" learned from the incident at Waihi, and the current review was a chance to see what, if anything, the party should do differently.

But one of the summer camp victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that nothing appeared to have changed.

"For a party whose main line is based on wellbeing and all that sort of carry on, this is just ridiculous. The party leadership is just useless.

"It actually sort of hurts to see this coming out again and to see people dealing with it again."

Haworth refused to comment when contacted this morning.