Fran O'Sullivan: More to Worth than immorality

The potential for inter-Government embarrassment is huge. That is, if it is proven that a minister outside the Cabinet and chair of the Korean-New Zealand Business Council took advantage of a Korean business woman who went down to Wellington on official business to strengthen links.

That's what is really going down in the Richard Worth affair.

Worth allegedly invited her to Wellington to introduce her to contacts which would be useful to her business career, arranged her hotel room, accompanied her there later in the evening, then stayed the night.

The obvious implication is "sexual activity" took place.

Two months later she reports "the matter" to the police with again - the obviously implication - that she considers the alleged sexual activity was not consensual. The problem that will confront the police is the business woman's claimed admission that he also stayed and had breakfast with her the next morning; a factor that will surely weigh heavily in any decision on whether to prosecute.

Surely any business woman in her 40s would be street-wise enough - this is the 21st century - to make her own hotel bookings, pay her own tab and let her sponsor know in no uncertain terms that she did not want him near her hotel room, unless she was prepared to go along with the seduction.

In the normal course of events, such a scenario would rarely lead to court unless there was proof that the woman was so (publicly) legless from the night out that he could conceivably be said to have taken advantage of her. It is essentially one person's word against another's.

But this is not the normal course of events. Trouble is, at the time of the alleged incident involving Richard Worth MP, not only was he a Minister of the Crown but he also chaired the Korean New Zealand Business Council.

In that capacity Worth hosted visiting South Korean President Myung-bak Lee at Auckland's Northern Club in early March, at a function in which invited business people were given the low-down on how the free trade negotiations would open the door for more bilateral trade.

She is a Korean business woman of sufficient standing to be known to Worth through his long-standing associations with the South Korean community.

So, she could rightfully have expected any invitation to come down to Wellington on business did fall within the purview of Worth's ministerial responsibilities by virtue of the fact that Key Government allowed him to retain his outside positions on both the Korean and Indian bilateral trade councils after he was sworn in as a minister.

She could rightfully expect that Worth - who at that stage had yet to be forced by John Key to resign from his council roles due to "conflicts of interest" - could open doors for her which would further her own business aims and that her participation would strengthen the bilateral relationship.

Key is not saying so publicly, but the Korean connection is also a factor that played into his decision to "forcibly resign" Worth from his portfolios. With a major bilateral round table occurring in Seoul next week, having a minister the subject of tawdry allegations is not helpful.

Worth says he has not been charged with any criminal offence, "let alone had the opportunity to defend himself".

But even if the police do not lay criminal charges - an outcome Key was hinting at - the allegations that Worth has been leveraging his official position to extract favours cannot simply be swept under the carpet.

This is not a matter of morality. Many marriages break up in Parliament and MPs stray from their partners and find new spouses.

But what doesn't go with the territory are the allegations - made under Parliamentary privilege - that Worth also tried to extract sexual favours from an Indian woman for government-appointed positions.

Labour Party leader Phil Goff is right to pursue the issue. But Goff is wrong to simply argue that Key should meet the woman in question to hear her side of the story. It's gone far beyond that.

Fundamentally, what is alleged against Worth is little different to the allegations that were raised against former Labour Cabinet Minister Taito Phillip Field - that he used his position to extract favours from immigrants. It needs to be properly investigated.