Helen Clark wouldn't have meant to fire youth camp sex scandal 'missile' at Jacinda Ardern, says political analyst

August 31, 2018

The former prime minister was just being honest after indirectly criticising Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the Labour youth camp sex scandal, political commentator Bryce Edwards says.

Helen Clark might not have meant to fire a “missile” at Jacinda Ardern after indirectly criticising the prime minister’s handling of the Labour youth camp sex scandal, political commentator Bryce Edwards said.

The former prime minister told the Rotorua Daily Post yesterday that heads would have rolled had the scandal occurred under her leadership.

"Draw your own conclusions, go back to how I dealt with things like this, people wouldn't have kept their jobs," she said.

Dr Edwards said the comments were just Miss Clark being honest.

“I don’t know if she meant to fire this missile at Ardern, she was just honestly saying that she wouldn’t have put up with this nonsense,” he said.

“I think she would have handled this in a stronger way than Ardern did, she was a bit more, you know, with the iron fist on these sort of matters.”

One of the victims of the sex scandal criticised the decision not to release the report, saying there was no transparency.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will face pressure to come down on Meka Whaitiri after the punishment handed out to Clare Curran was perceived as soft, according to Bryce Edwards.

According to Dr Edwards, the decision to not release the report was understandable but “still a bad look.”

“We’ve had the report coming out this week, I can understand Labour not releasing it because there’s a court case going, there’s lots of sensitivities but it is a bad look, it makes it look like it’s a bit more of a cover up than it probably was,” he told TVNZ 1’s Breakfast.

Four teens said they were sexually harassed or assaulted during a Young Labour camp, near the Coromandel town of Waihi in February.

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