‘We failed the young’: Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern says NZ Labor failed to protect young people as police probe sexual misconduct allegations at party events.

The Waihi Summer Camp and, inset, Jacinda Ardern.

Jacinda Ardern says the party failed to protect young people as NZ Labour suspends all Young Labour events and police begin investigating allegations of sexual misconduct.

An intoxicated 20-year-old man allegedly sexually assaulted four 16-year-olds, putting his hands down the pants of at least three of them in early February at a NZ Young Labour summer camp, 140km southwest of Auckland, Radio NZ reports.

Police confirmed this morning they are now investigating the claims. The party did not inform police or the alleged victims’ parents until the story broke on March 12.

Party President Nigel Haworth announced today all youth events associated with the party would be suspended while they deliberated on how to ensure young people were safe. “As a result of the incidents at the Waihi Summer Camp we have taken the decision to immediately suspend all Young Labour events,” he told the NZ Herald. “We need to take the time to properly review issues around how best to create the safest possible environment at all our events.”

The annual Summer School camps are open to supporters for all ages and are intended to nurture future political leaders. According to Newsroom, a wide variety of alcohol was available at the party, including rum and vodka, where the alleged assaults took place on February 10.

The camp’s supervisor reportedly went to bed at around 9pm and was not present at the party.

Ardern, the world’s youngest female leader, spoke at the opening of the camp, a night before the assaults allegedly took place. She would not provide detail on the allegations, but said the party had failed the alleged victims. “We failed the young people who told us they had been hurt – this failure left them feeling abandoned and I am deeply sorry for that. It’s not good enough, we let them down.” she said.

Haworth also said an independent review of the party’s policies and procedures in relation to events would be would undertaken to be published. Alcohol will be prohibited at all future events where people under the age of 18 are present.

Ardern yesterday criticised the handling of the incident by party general secretary Andrew Kirton and has said she only learnt about the allegations when questioned by a reporter on Monday.

She also said she doesn’t know why the alleged perpetrator was there, and that he is neither a Young Labour member or a staff member.

The alleged offender was ordered to leave the camp the morning after the incident. The four alleged victims reportedly told Young Labour they did not want to proceed further. Kirton was informed of the incident on February 14. Young Labour representatives emailed the alleged victims asking if they required professional support or wanted to take further action against the alleged perpetrator. Mr Kirton says he was not told two of them responded.

Three weeks after the alleged incident, on March 3, Kirton says professional help was offered to alleged victims.

A day later one of the campers reached out to government minister Megan Woods, dissatisfied with how the claim was being handled. Ms Woods alerted Kirton, who says he then contacted the young person within two hours.

Kirton has apologised to Ardern for his handling of the case but has defended not alerting her, the police or the victim’s parents, saying it was to allow the campers greater agency over the investigation. “The advice that I have is that these young people need to make the choices themselves about who they tell. I didn’t want to ... go over and above their heads and cause further distress by contacting other people when they might not want to discuss it with anyone,” Mr Kirton told Radio NZ.

“We just need to make sure that we offer them appropriate level of support, don’t go telling everyone under the sun, and put appropriate practices in place to stop this happening again.”