Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urges caution over Mallard and 'tantamount to rape' comment

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is urging caution around cries of injustice about a male staffer who has been stood down from Parliament.

The Parliamentary Service employee says he is the victim of slander.

He was sent home after Speaker Trevor Mallard claimed a serial sex offender was roaming the corridors of power.

Ardern today told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking there was a lot to the report by external reviewer Debbie Francis that she and the media were not privy to.

Speaker Trevor Mallard last week announcing a parliamentary staff member had been stood down, pending investigation into sexual assault. Photo / Mark Mitchell

"I've seen an interview's been conducted with someone who's been stood down from Parliament but there is not necessarily been the detail provided around the original allegations," she said.

"I don't think we should have a trial by media."

The Parliamentary Service employee was stood down from Parliament last week after the publication of last week's Francis report into bullying and harassment in the Beehive, which revealed three serious allegations of sexual harassment.

Shortly afterward, Mallard claimed these alleged incidents were tantamount to rape.

Mallard declined to comment yesterday.

The man, who the Herald has chosen not to name to protect his family, has denied inappropriate behaviour and said he felt as if he were being bullied out of his job.

In a two-hour sit-down interview, the man stood down from Parliament said: "The accusation of rape has put me in a very dark place."

A colleague at the centre of a complaint against him three years earlier had come forward again after complainants were urged to do so by the Speaker.

"At no time was I spoken to by the review's head, Debbie Francis, which I thought I would have been, considering an alleged incident had been investigated and was found to be without merit," the man said.

"It's ironic that the review was about bullying and harassment. I feel I've been bullied out of Parliament and harassed within it, particularly by the Speaker's claim."

But Ardern told Hosking this morning the man's case and the allegations contained in the recent anonymous report may be different.

"There are two things that have been conflated together here," Ardern said.

These were serious allegations made in the confidential report and an issue separately investigated by Parliamentary Services she said.

"So I think we should be pretty cautious."