Alison Mau has finally written about the latest sex scandal in Labour’s ranks and it is a very carefully written piece that lacks emotion and plays down the facts. I cannot help but compare her opinion piece to news articles full of hyperbole written years back about John Key playfully pulling a woman’s ponytail.
In John Key’s case, he was vilified and the most fantastical explanations were offered as to why he had touched her ponytail. In contrast to those excited and accusatory pieces, Mau carefully tiptoes around the allegations as if she were treading on eggshells.
Even the headline of her opinion piece excuses the Labour party for attempting to shove the scandal under the carpet and telling the victims to avoid the alleged predator. According to the headline, the party didn’t do anything deliberately they simply have a “blind spot” when it comes to sexual harassment and abuse.
OPINION: It’s hard to believe Labour was taken by surprise by its latest sexual harassment scandal […]
Given what has been revealed by National Deputy PM Paula Bennett the accused predator is guilty of a lot more than just sexual harassment so the statement above is downplaying the issue right from the get go.
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.
Not enough progress? They clearly have made no progress at all and have treated the latest victims even worse than the ones at the Labour youth camp!
[…] 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.
“The Summer Camp complainant”? That line gives the impression that there was only one when at the time it was reported that there were four complainants.
[…] 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.
According to Paula Bennett, it is much worse than that. The victims were told that the accused predator was too important to the party to be punished and that they should stop complaining. Where is the outrage from Mau on their behalf? Instead, she tries to paint an image of the Labour party as a family that simply let them down in error.
I hope that leads to a just result that everyone involved can live with, and real consequences if the alleged behaviour is substantiated. 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.
stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/115064334/alison-mau
I hope that a just result is achieved too but I cannot help but note that Mau cannot stick to the topic at hand and feels the need to try to make the issue about ALL political parties instead of focussing on the Labour party. She goes on to expand on this idea making excuses for parliament as a whole claiming that it isn’t an average HQ and so has more hurdles than most preventing it from leading the way on being a safe and fair workplace.