The party’s selection process now explicitly requires the leader be told about past mistakes made by wannabe MPs if there’s political risk. Pending a report on Sam Uffindell, Christopher Luxon says he's neutral on the sort of person the new MP is.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says party president Sylvia Wood has admitted the board made a bad judgment call when it failed to tell him about a high-school assault involving new MP Sam Uffindell.
While the Tauranga MP, who is currently suspended from caucus, was upfront with the pre-selection committee that as a 16-year-old he beat-up a 13-year-old at King’s College which resulted in him being asked to leave, the information never made its way to Luxon.
The information was made public after the victim told Stuff he was concerned about the timing of an apology from Uffindell just ahead of his selection for the Tauranga by-election.
Luxon initially came out in support of his new MP, saying he wasn’t the person he was as a teenager, and was now a man of “integrity" and “good character".
But Luxon told Newsroom on Tuesday that he is currently neutral on what sort of a person Uffindell is.
“When I processed the King’s College incident, I was saying I’ve seen an individual who has changed and is different. But new allegations came along and put me into a neutral mode," Luxon said.
Those fresh allegations exposed by RNZ just a day after the King’s College revelations, were related to Uffindell’s time at Otago University and claims of bullying.
Within two hours Luxon launched an independent investigation in response.
Uffindell was immediately suspended from caucus pending the result of an investigation by QC Maria Dew, which was due back last week but has been extended by another fortnight.
Luxon told Newsroom there is scope for Dew’s report to cover any allegations from Uffindell’s past dating back to his school days, through to university, and beyond.
“There’s scope for other incidences, but I’m not aware of any," he said.
When the investigation into Uffindell is complete, Luxon will make a call on whether he has a future in the caucus.
He pointed out that simply having made mistakes in the past didn’t mean someone couldn’t be an MP.
“Everybody in Parliament, I’d put it to you, probably has an imperfect past – there would be very few left if that was the case."
Luxon’s focus in the three weeks since Uffindell was suspended, has been continuing to work with Wood on the party processes around building a better culture.
Over summer the pair designed a new code of conduct for the party, which Luxon said had already played a pivotal role in clearing out bad behaviour.
In March, two members of the Young Nats left the party after they were exposed for online harassment of two Christchurch-based Labour MPs and a local councillor.
“We were able to say here’s the standard, it’s crystal clear … it made it simple to say that behaviour is against our expectations and standards," Luxon said.
Uffindell disclosing why he was asked to leave King’s College was also evidence of the new selection process working, he said.
“I think it’s a good thing that what we saw was the party actively encouraging potential candidates to come to the table and admit something they’re not proud of, rather than trying to hide it under the carpet, which I think has been the behaviour here in this place for some time."
“I think that’s an improvement – we know not everybody is perfect."
“When I processed the King’s College incident, I was saying I’ve seen an individual who has changed and is different. But new allegations came along and put me into a neutral mode." - Christopher Luxon
Luxon is clear the selection process also needed tightening up in terms of what the leadership is told, and when, in relation to candidates vying to be MPs.
He had frank conversations with Wood, and the board “accept I should have been informed".
“In hindsight, someone should have found a way to let me know," he told Newsroom.
“Rightly or wrongly, they felt they had done the analysis deeply and gone through that process – I don’t think it was bad intentions or bad intent."
Candidate selection processes are dealing with humans, who are “grossly imperfect", Luxon said.
“The process will get you so far, but it won’t 100 percent solve a situation."
