It is funny how
it is often unexpected things that trip us up. Prime Minister Adern will surely
be reflecting on that after the success of her Pacific Mission was pushed
firmly into the background by Labour's summer camp revelations. Instead of not
unreasonably being able to glow in the wake of her week in the Pacific, she
suddenly found herself on the back foot over the summer camp issue. To make
matters worse, it appears she knew nothing about it, which makes the actions of
the Party's General Secretary (who had known of the incident for some weeks) and senior Cabinet Minister Megan
Woods (who had known for a lesser time) that much harder to follow.
Both should have
understood that anything to do with the slightest suggestion of sexual abuse
was likely to attract media attention pretty quickly - especially a summer camp
coming right on the heels of the now infamous revelations about summer camps
held by Otago University Law students. It would have not been reasonable for
Labour to have a clear strategy in place both for dealing with the issue in a
way the public would consider acceptable, and for keeping the Prime Minister -
who would ultimately be called on to front the issue, even though she could
hardly be held responsible for it - fully in the loop. But no, someone decided
the matter should be dealt with in-house, and that the Prime Minister
deliberately should not be involved.
And that is a
puzzling issue too. Hardly a day passes without the Church being implicated in
another sex scandal, and without the utter inadequacy of their in-house
procedures for dealing with such things being mocked and derided. Surely, one
would think, Labour would have been aware of all this - after all, the Government has just set up a Royal
Commission of Inquiry into claims of historical institutional sex abuse - and
not allow itself to be perceived as having now stumbled deliberately into the
same trap.
There is one
other peculiar thing about all this. Successive governments have gone to
extraordinary lengths whenever there is a whiff of scandal around to insulate
the Prime Minister of the day from any suggestion of being involved in or even
aware of the incident in question. While
this is perfectly understandable in an overall sense, it has frequently created
some awkwardness when Prime Ministers have suddenly been confronted with
something they were not aware of and have given hasty, unconvincing and
incomplete responses as a consequence. Certainly, the reputation of the Prime
Minister of the day has been left largely unsullied, but the awkward situations
they have been placed in by the good intentions of those of those around them
have left their mana a little diminished.
While National
will be enjoying Labour's discomfort, it may not be all that happy itself. This
was, after all, to be the week to focus on Simon Bridges' new line-up, and to
set the scene for the first head-to-head contests when Parliament resumes next
week. Well, all that has been knocked aside by the summer camp saga, and the
week of promoting the new line-up has vanished. Moreover, because the summer
camp story relates to the activities of the Labour Party, not the Government,
there is no Ministerial responsibility involved, so National will not even be
able to question the Prime Minister about it when the House resumes.
What happens next
with the summer camp saga will depend very much on the Labour Party head office
and the individuals involved. The matter may yet be taken up by the Police - who
should have been informed at the outset - or Labour may continue its hitherto
ham-fisted internal damage control. Either way, expect stern words between the
Prime Minister's Office and the Party head office about making sure the Prime
Minister - the Government's best and so far only asset - is not caught on the
hop by the Party's activities again.
Recesses are
times when both Governments and Oppositions seek to create opportunities which
give them bragging rights and set themselves up well for the next round of
public opinion polls, and for when the House resumes. The Pacific Mission and
the Opposition reshuffle both had potential in that regard. That both should be
gazumped by the goings-on at a Party summer camp is a timely reminder that
keeping a close eye on and on top of what is happening at home will trump big
external achievements every time.
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