Andrew Kirton suddenly steps down

Man faces four charges of indecent assault at Labour Party summer youth camp

A man at the centre of sexual assault allegations at a Labour Party summer youth camp has been charged.

Police said a man, 20, has been arrested and bailed to appear in court on four charges of indecent assault.

“This follows an investigation into allegations relating to a Labour Party summer camp at Waihi,” police said.

The man is due to appear in the Auckland District Court on July 5.

Andrew Kirton steps down as Labour’s general secretary on Friday right after Jacinda’s birth so no one would notice and all of a sudden this case is back in the media.

In my opinion, Kirton had to go after the sex scandal fiasco.

His claim of following a ‘victim led’ approach as dictated by woke Wellington twitter was never going to stand up to the real scrutiny of a Court case.

The backlash against Labour’s ‘victim led’ solution would only build while managing to enrage every voting parent while those impacted only got support after a month.

‘Victim led’ can’t mean this.

Leaving four 16 year olds to make decisions for themselves and just cutting the 20 year old loose seemed like a terrible way to deal with all of this while claiming it’s ‘victim led’.

Some have claimed that allowing the 16 year olds agency like this was the right thing to do.

Bullshit.

If there is concern of self harm, privacy concerns can be over ridden so there are exceptions to this rule, Andrew should have done that.

Surely the 16 year olds needed to have their parents informed immediately, full legal options explained plus wrap around counselling services. The 20 year old in question also should have had counselling offered.

What happened instead? A woke Wellington Twitter ‘victim led’ approach was adopted without any external advice, Police weren’t originally suggested and no aid was offered until almost a month afterwards and only after a complaint was made on social media that Labour weren’t doing anything.

Timeline of events

• February 9: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks at the opening of Young Labour’s “Summer School” camp in Waihi.

• February 10: A 20-year-old man allegedly sexually harasses or assaults four 16-year-olds – two males and two females – during a camp event.

• February 11: The man is thrown out and the victims offered support. Shortly after Labour’s general secretary Andrew Kirton is informed.

• March 3: Follow-up offer of professional help offered to victims, according to Kirton.

• March 4: Energy Minister Megan Woods receives complaint about lack of response by Young Labour and contacts Kirton, who says the matter is being dealt with “appropriately”. Woods does not raise with Ardern or anyone else.

• March 12: Newsroom publishes the allegations and Ardern is blindsided by media questions. The party issues a statement saying it is “extremely disappointed” about the incident and launches a review.

• March 13: Ardern accepts the party was too slow to offer support but says she won’t sack Kirton, who later reveals he’s been told a second incident at another camp years earlier.

• Yesterday: Kirton says one of the teens has made a complaint to police.

How was any of this best practice or ‘victim led’?

Beyond the immediate safety and mental health issues of those impacted by this is the political dimension and on this front there can be no forgiveness.

Kirton was the General Secretary of the Labour Party, he had every obligation to inform Jacinda so that she could not be blindsided by the media! It is outrageous that she was put in that position and it was painful to watch Jacinda get clobbered like that.

Now also consider the political backlash here – Kirton was telling every single voting parent in NZ that if their 16 year old was indecently assaulted at an official  Labour Party function, he wouldn’t tell them because he was following a woke Wellington Twitter ‘victim led’ approach???

Kirton had to go, because the way this was handled ended up making the Green Party strategy team look competent.