Well, well… Alison Mau has finally come out and spoken about the Labour Party sexual harassment scandal going on behind its doors. I wasn’t sure if she would, as she said very little if anything about the Young Labour sex scandal last year. However, as the face of #metoo in New Zealand, Mau really had to come out and address the issue, otherwise, she would lose all credibility. I’m not sure she has done enough though.
It’s hard to believe Labour was taken by surprise by its latest sexual harassment scandal – and I do think it is a scandal that an increasing number of people who are otherwise loyal to the party and its work are feeling so abandoned.
The party does not appear to have made enough progress since the summer camp incident, and with the latest allegations, is once again on the back foot.
Labour has in fact, reacted in exactly the way most organisations react to allegations of harassment in the ranks (and I do not mean that as a compliment); there is a flurry of initial activity and much talk of policies and procedures. Reviews of reviews are carried out. In Labour’s case, the report prepared for the party by solicitor Maria Austen after the summer camp, made recommendations the party accepted and promised to implement.
But the full report has never been released – Austen was instructed to prepare a report that would be seen by senior party members only. It was never intended to be made public, and probably never will be.
Something else to brush under the carpet? It must be getting pretty lumpy under there by now.
This is a major problem for perceptions of public transparency in this “most transparent” of governments. But on a much more human level, it is also an ongoing, niggling thorn in the side of the summer camp complainant, who told me this week that he wants to see the report he gave a gruelling four-hour interview for, and is distraught that he can’t.
Mau was forced to address this because a complainant from the Young Labour camp actually approached her.
The way that young man, and the women at the centre of the more recent allegations express their hurt and disappointment is tellingly similar; they had thought of Labour as a family, but have found the family “doesn’t want to know” about sexual harassment or bullying. People they thought would protect them have let them down, pretended ignorance, failed to follow up. The party has promised things will change with the new appeal process led by Maria Dew QC.
If the Labour party cannot protect its own employees from sexual harassment, then there is something very rotten about this government. Alison Mau was all over the Russell McVeigh scandal last year, and rightly so, but she seems, to me anyway, to be mostly letting the Labour party off the hook.
The much bigger issue is how Labour, other political parties, and beyond that Parliament, can transform into safe working environments free from bullying and harassment.
There’s an understandable feeling that of all workplaces, this one ought to be leading the way and that is fair – but it faces a greater challenge than most. Parliament is not your average organisational HQ; its workers are scattered as is its human resources capacity, and employment arrangements don’t comply to the usual rules anyhow.
I’m sorry, Alison, but the fact that no one works 9 to 5 in parliament does not allow them to bully or sexually harass one another. If employees and managers in other industries can behave, so can the people who govern us. There are no excuses.
Earlier this year Parliament made a start in addressing its ingrained culture of harassment thanks to the results of the Debbie Francis report, which revealed a systemically abusive culture.
Since then, the speaker has accused a man of being a rapist, while another alleged rapist has not even been stood down pending an inquiry, supposedly because he is ‘too important’. I can see the Francis report has made a huge difference so far.
I think Labour has seriously underestimated its internal issues. It looks to have a blind spot around sexual harassment – but must know the issue is not going away anytime soon.
STUFF
Good on Alison for at least speaking up about the issue, but I feel her rebukes of Labour are rather mild compared to what one might expect from the country’s most prominent #metoo campaigner. There is one thing that she studiously ignores though. In referring to the latest victims of Labour’s sexual harassment culture, she has omitted to mention that the alleged perpetrator works in the prime minister’s office. By omitting that, she is careful not to implicate Jacinda directly in any way, referring to it more as a Labour ‘culture’ issue. If it is true that the accused works in Jacinda’s office, then it is glaringly obvious that this problem goes right to the top.
We all know that, and so does Alison Mau. Not a good look, is it?