A similar situation, from the National perspective now.

Everyone involved in this shameful situation is going to get away with this scot free, except the victims.

Heads should have rolled for this instead of those people being pushed quietly out on a big news day to plush roles elsewhere.

This whole thing, the speculation around it, the multiple political angles and now the comments by the defence in light of the lesser charge plea, all just makes me deeply uncomfortable.

Sounds pretty bad to me. 

Why haven't these people gone to the police? There appears to be so much of this going on.  There are many groups out there to support them. These are definitely matters for the police

gulfa:

 

Why haven't these people gone to the police? There appears to be so much of this going on.  There are many groups out there to support them. These are definitely matters for the police

 

the article states:

She had not gone to police because of the difficulties and experiences of others who had gone through that process.

That's worthy of some investigation - there's either a real problem with how police deal with victims - or a real problem with how they're perceived to deal with them, or both.

But there's another issue, assuming that the alleged victim genuinely and of her own free will didn't want to report it, and "The person leading the original review made it clear to the complainants that the party would never be the appropriate body to handle allegations of that nature and that they would need to be investigated by the police," - which didn't happen - should it stop there?

I would have thought at the bare minimum, she should have been referred to support services, and if she didn't want that,  then the people who'd been advised of the alleged assault should have contacted the police and/or support services, protecting her identity if she insisted.

It's described as a very serious assault/attempted rape where the alleged offender is a serious danger to others, he'll do it again - so it's irresponsible to attempt to deal with it internally, whether or not that was an attempt to hush it up / damage control.

I read the Spinoff article and it sounds really awful if the things reported are true (they sound pretty convincing). The lack of support for the victim and apparent indifference to a possible predator do not speak highly of the Labour organisation. 

Ardern has stated she was clearly misled by the Labour Party Leadership and has suggested she will act decisively if this shows the Labour President in a bad light (Surely this is beyond dispute at this point, he has been in charge during TWO of these things), but won't actually suspend him pending an investigation as would be completely normal and standard practice in any situation like this (Which is decisive). The issue(s) addressed in this thread clearly shows horrible dysfunction within the Labour party as it relates to handling issues like this, and it's likely spilling into other areas too.

Secondly, it should be mandatory that if someone wants to take their complaint to the press, it be investigated by police. If she was assaulted, then this person should be charged and tried and if found guilty, punished (if only to protect potential future victims). If in the unlikely situation it's found that she isn't being truthful she should face charges of her own.

networkn:

 

Secondly, it should be mandatory that if someone wants to take their complaint to the press, it be investigated by police. If she was assaulted, then this person should be charged and tried and if found guilty, punished (if only to protect potential future victims). If in the unlikely situation it's found that she isn't being truthful she should face charges of her own.

 

No! No! No! Your proposal is offensive in its barbarity and lack of victim centredness. And it reveals -- like a significant number of your posts on matters relating to criminal justice -- a deplorable lack of knowledge in such matters. Just because someone wishes to hold an alleged perpetrator to account via his or her own choice of legal means (remember: laws such as defamation apply in such circumstances) does not mean they should be forced to participate in a criminal justice process where, should the accused person go to trial and pleads not guilty, the complainant may have to be cross-examined by a defence lawyer. For some complainants, they simply can't handle this (to be point where, for example, I as an ex-prosecutor have actually elected to not proceed further with a sexual assault trial following consultation with the complainant and medical experts because any continuation would be seriously detrimental to the person's health). You seem oblivious to such concerns.

Perhaps even more importantly, people in NZ also have the right to freedom of speech. NZ is, after all, not named Networknland where people retain this freedom in a manner that isn't qualified by the state being able to compel them to speak with instruments of the state should they exercise their fright in certain contexts. This kind of respect for individual autonomy lies at the very heart of a liberal democratic society. Lastly, there have been numerous reviews and studies on how the system can improve their treatment of sexual assault complainants and most of those interviewed have referenced a willingness to give account to their views and feelings as being a major determinant of the nature of their experience with the system. Why should society take the retrograde step of actually disregarding the actual wishes of complainants?

Again, more thinking and less typing would be a good move.

Edit: Typo

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12266570

This writer probably isn't the most balanced, but she does raise some reasonable questions around the timing of the PM's knowledge that this was an alleged assault of a sexual nature.

This is a criminal issue and I do not understand why it hasnt been resolved some 6 months after the event. PM cant act innocent over this as she is one of the most senior people in the party. Labour party need to deal with this in a honest and transparent fashion. All I see are lies and blame laying.The PR machine will be in full swing again. Something is very wrong within the party.