National Party leader Christopher Luxon has defended the decision not to release the report into bullying allegations against Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell, saying the privacy of interviewees needs to be respected, despite Uffindell's accusers saying they're happy for the report to be made public.
Uffindell has been reinstated to National's caucus after being cleared of allegations of bullying from his time at university.
Speaking on Breakfast this morning Luxon said Uffindell "deserves a second chance".
Luxon received the independent report on Uffindell's conduct last Thursday, and announced the findings on Monday - but did not release the report, the terms of reference, or the executive summary, and would not say who was and was not interviewed. Only himself, party president Sylvia Wood and Sam Uffindell saw the full report.
But Luxon said the party had faithfully represented the investigation in its statements, and said that even though the Uffindell's accusers from his time at university are happy for the report to be made public, the privacy of other interviewees had to be respected.
READ MORE: Uffindell's accusers happy for report on MP's conduct to be made public
"When the new allegations arose, I wanted to be reassured that there was nothing else there, beyond even the time at university," he said. "We commissioned an independent investigation, the criteria for doing that and for people to want to come forward and to make their contributions was that it needed to be private and confidential so they could do that in a safe space.
"Sylvia Wood has discussed the findings with those two complainants, but just remember there's 14 other people that have been interviewed, there's many others that have given written submissions, and they've done so on the basis of confidentiality given the sensitivities and personal stuff involved. "
When pressed on whether questions would linger about the report unless it's released, Luxon said it would make his life easier to do so, but he had run his statements on the findings past Maria Dew KC - who conducted the independent investigation - and "the findings are pretty clear, the alleged serious behaviour from Sam didn't occur in the way that it was represented".
"There’s no one who came forward saying that Sam had caused them harm subsequent to all those events and on that basis he deserves a second chance and he deserves a chance to get on with is career and demonstrate he’s a person of good character and a good MP," Luxon said.
Luxon also rejected suggestions that announcing the investigation findings on the day of the Queen's funeral was intended to distract.
READ MORE: National's Luxon defends secrecy over Uffindell report
Deputy PM Grant Robertson called the timing of the move "pretty disrespectful and definitely pretty cynical".
But the National leader said he had "been waiting for this report for some time" and the timing was simply about releasing the findings as soon as possible: "We received the report late last Thursday, digested it over the weekend with party president Sylvia Wood, and then came and announced it as quickly as we possible could.
"I saw those comments from Grant Robertson and frankly it's a bit rich, Grant Robertson lecturing us in the National Party about something like that."
Luxon also said that he had full confidence in Uffindell.
READ MORE: Sam Uffindell welcomes outcome of bullying investigation
"He was upfront about the King's College incident, yes we should have made it available to the public and to the public domain through the campaign, but beyond that he has genuinely demonstrated that he is a different person and I have to say to you, go through Parliament, there would be very few people in Parliament with perfect pasts."
Earlier Edward Willis, a senior law lecturer at the University of Auckland, told Breakfast that it's difficult for the public to decide whether the report on Uffindell is credible without National releasing it.
Edward Willis says it will be hard for the public to rely on the report without seeing it. (Source: Breakfast)
He confirmed there could be valid privacy reasons for the secrecy around the independent report.
"But if you take that a step further and say well, we want the public to rely on this, we want the public to say National's done everything above board, they select good people... The public's just not really in a position to do that."
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