Simon Bridges defends National Party workplace culture review

Senior National MP Amy Adams says she has always felt safe in the National Party. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The National Party review of workplace practices does not appear to have looked into the allegations of bullying that prompted it in the first place, or interviewed individual women MPs about whether they feel safe.

But the party is defending it as doing exactly what it set out to do by looking at health and safety practices and ensuring they are up to scratch.

The party released recommendations from the review today, including a code of conduct for party members and MPs and clearer processes on how to handle complaints on bullying and harassment.

But the review itself was not released, which party leader Simon Bridges defended as similar to the Labour Party's response over allegations of sexual misconduct at its summer camp in February last year.

That incident prompted a Labour Party review and the release of its recommendations, but the party said that the review itself would not be released while court proceedings of indecent assault against a young man were ongoing.

Last November Bridges ordered the National Party review, carried out by consultancy firm Progressive Safety Limited, following allegations of bullying and intimidation by women about former National MP Jami-Lee Ross, which Ross denied.

Bridges said at the time that he did not think the party had a culture problem, but he wanted to ensure the party had an environment where women felt safe.

Further allegations arose against National MP Maggie Barry, which she also denied. Police were also called in to investigate a complaint about inappropriate touching after a Young Nats event in Auckland.

Bridges defended not releasing the full review today, claiming that the Labour Party had failed to make changes after allegations of assault against Labour MP Meka Whaitiri, which she has denied, nor had Labour released its review over the summer camp incident.

"Nothing about [Labour's summer camp] investigation has been made public in any way, shape or form," Bridges said.

Senior National MP Amy Adams backed Bridges, though she would not say if she had been interviewed for the review, or whether it had looked at how the allegations against Ross had been handled.

Asked if she had been interviewed, she said: "I was certainly involved and consulted in it, both as member of the caucus and a member of the party."

Asked about whether the review had looked at the allegations against Ross, Adams said: "It was exactly what we said it was going to be, which was a full, very comprehensive external review of our health and safety policies and procedures, particularly looking at things like bullying and harassment."

She said she had always felt safe in the National Party.

Ross said National should release its review in full.

"It's important that the public sees what the National Party's come up with."

He said the Francis report, released last week, showed that everyone who worked at Parliament needed to treat each other better.

"For any staff that I didn't treat as well as I should have, I'm very sorry for that. I've made that apology before, and I'll keep making those apologies."

Party president Peter Goodfellow said the review had shown that the party's current health and safety policies could be improved.

"We can and will do better in making sure our Health and Safety policies and procedures are more visible and accessible to members, more frequently discussed, and that our senior and local volunteer leadership help take ownership of that approach."

The recommendations include:

• Introducing a Code of Conduct Policy that sets the behavioural expectations of party members, a complaints procedure for alleged breaches, responses to complaints, the investigation processes, appeals, and the disciplinary actions available.

• Greater accessibility and visibility of health and safety policies and procedures to members.

• Consideration of inclusion of the code of conduct into the party constitution and rules.

• A new sub-committee of Board of Directors tasked with overseeing Health & Safety. This group will include the president, party secretary, a delegated board member with relevant experience, Young National's president, and the chief whip.

• Ensure ongoing reviews of health and safety are conducted on an annual basis.

• Including a specific section about bullying and harassment to the Health and Safety induction booklet

• Updating the booklet to include the process for dealing with any complaints, and to continue to victim-led approach is always followed.

• Having a pro-active weekly discussion between the senior parliamentary and volunteer wings to raise and address any relevant issues, complaints or incidents

"Our Board of Directors have accepted all of the recommendations made," Goodfellow said.

"At our core we are a club of 25,000-plus volunteers ... but we must all be vigilant that that passion does not inadvertently descend into any form of bullying or harassment.

"We have a duty of care to our members, and their continued trust and confidence in our policies and processes is paramount."

The review was completed weeks ago but Bridges has said the party wanted the Francis review into the culture of Parliament's workplace to be released before it would release the findings of it's own review.