There Is a Very Rotten Odour Emanating From NZ's Left

Hoist and Dangling From Their Own Petard

It is hard to credit or comprehend the ethical environment that must now characterise the New Zealand Labour Party.  Similar comments now may also be made about Winston Peters and his party and the Greens.  It seems that moral hypocrisy is running through the vitals of left wing parties to such an extent that the ordinary bloke and blokesse are left shaking their heads--or, as their mates would say, "Gobsmacked".  

We are not up to play with all the "in's and out's".  So we will take our cue from Andrea Vance.

"The rot is very deep. [The] party is allergic to women."  Those are powerful words from a former Beehive aide, appalled by how the Labour party has handled allegations of sexual assault by a staffer.  Is it any wonder then, that some complainants turned to National's deputy leader Paula Bennett for help?

National's deputy leader is taking fire for relentlessly dogging Labour over their litany of failures.  During general debate in the House, National Deputy Leader Paula Bennett said Jacinda Ardern's senior staff and senior minister Grant Robertson had known the seriousness of the allegations.  She was approached by five desperate complainants, who'd been dismissed and ignored by their own party. . . .

Jacinda Ardern has pledged two - secret - inquiries. It's the bare minimum, and the cookie-cutter response to a PR crisis.  But look past the PM's soothing platitudes, to the party's defensive behaviour over the last fortnight. It reveals MPs and members are in denial about how badly they wronged these young volunteers.  Ardern, who chooses her words with care, dismissed the original media reporting, and interviews with complainants, as "speculation." 
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the party failed in its response to sexual assault allegation.  Kelvin Davis went further, calling the allegations rumours. When he was called out for disrespect, he tried to minimise the harm by playing victim.  Next to wade in was Willie Jackson. It was a devastatingly insensitive PR strategy from Labour: wheeling out the man who victim blamed and supported rape culture during the Roastbusters scandal.

Instead of contrition, Jackson attacked Bennett, with some crass whataboutery: "It's a bit unethical that they [the National Party] keep coming at us when they had sex scandals all over them... did you hear a word from our side?"   Jackson's argument is weak: Jami-Lee Ross was accused of many things, but not sexual assault. And Willie, it's alleged abuse, not a "sex scandal".

Labour's ruling Council sent its own defiant message by elevating Tracey McLellan to acting president. She was one of three party members on a panel investigation which dismissed complaints about the staffer. The council had the power to choose an alternative, instead they raised two fingers.

To further compound contempt shown to the complainants, Simon Mitchell, who led that bungled inquiry, issued a public statement publicly contradicting the complainants. He says the alleged victim's claims that she revealed details of a sexual assault are "untrue" and "not credible."

Then, with all the sensitivity of your misogynistic old uncle, Peters stepped up to defend his coalition partners. He labelled the allegations "unfounded fiction", an "orgy of speculation", and "innuendo".  In staggeringly boorish fashion, his MP Shane Jones followed up. He was "more worried about Spark, whether or not I can watch the World Cup Rugby than hearing any more about she said, he said."

And Tracey Martin, chimed in: "[Peters has] got a point - I haven't seen any evidence be produced." Suggesting these young people must prove they were abused is an odd position for the Minister of Children to adopt.  Instead of trashing Paula Bennett, perhaps female Labour, NZ First and Green MPs should reflect on why the complainants choose her, and not them, as their advocate.  [Stuff]

For all those comments and innuendo from the Left to be given a modicum of respect it must be assumed that the Left--to every man and woman--believe the young complainants are deceivers and  misleaders.   How does the Left--every man and woman among it--know this to be the case?

To our mind, the Left is playing a very high stakes game of poker.  It is acting like it believes to every man and woman in its serried ranks that the allegations are false.  Not just expect they are false, or hope they are false--but that they are actually false and the evidence will prove it to be the case.   

Now, if that were the case, Why, oh why, the months and months of cover-up by those very same Left wing politicians and staffers?  Either they were covering up evidence of criminal malfeasance, or they were covering up evidence of  the accused's innocence.  Every one of them--one way or the other--is now hoist and dangling from their collective petard.