The Labour Party has stood down its social development spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni – following charges of benefit fraud being laid against her mother.
Labour Party leader Andrew Little said the charges against her mother meant Ms Sepuloni had a conflict of interest in the social development portfolio.
Mr Little said she would remain Junior Whip and remain at number seven on his front bench.
Ms Sepuloni had assured him she did not know her mother was facing charges until today, he said.
I just heard this on the parliamentary round up. It is nice to see that Labour has learnt how to deal with possible conflicts of interest. Not bothering to cover them up and removing people from a possible conflict of interest.
While I’m sure that we will still get the dribbling trolls, this is how potential conflicts of interest should be handled.
No hanging around while #dirtypolitics junkies like Judith Collins, John Key or Michael Woodhouse dribbles out the details to their favoured bloggers and journos.
According to the radio report that I heard; Carmel found out when asked by a journo, rang her mother to see if it was true, and once confirmed talked to Andrew Little and was stood down from her conflicting social development role. All within the news cycle.
I have to say that this is such a relief after having many years of dithering around the Labour caucus in many previous incidents since I started with this blog. Good on Carmel and Andrew!
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