Nick Smith rejoices as Jake Bezzant takes public spotlight off him

Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, June 2nd, 2021 - 15 comments
Categories: election 2020, national, Politics, sexism - Tags:

Eerily enough Nick Smith has dropped out of public attention, at least for now.

Jake Bezzant has instead taken Smith’s place.

I have watched Bezzant for a while.  He was meant to be one of National’s bright new things, having been selected in then safe Upper Harbour.  If things were normal he would be in Parliament right now.

But his selection did not meet with approval from within National’s ranks and the whispering campaign started.  They really would eat their young for political advantage.

These rumours made me predict that Bezzant should win the seat, even against Labour’s impressive Vanushi Walters, but it could be tight and he might be one scandal away from losing.

Then the scandal happened as CV accuracy problems appeared.  In September last year I said:

Senior National MPs were warned by letter dated July 19, 2020.  It makes you wonder why they did not take any action at the time although to be fair this was the time when it was announced that Andrew Falloon was standing down from Parliament for “health reasons” and it then quickly emerged that the cause of his depression was the drunken sending of inappropriate graphic material to a woman who was not his wife and who was actually a teenager.  The headspace to deal with yet another crisis involving a National candidate clearly was not there.

Instead of deselecting him National soldiered through and lost the seat.

Two days ago a podcast Whips, Chains and Brains hit Spotify.  The description said that listeners would “hear about Tarryns last relationship with an up and coming member of the National Party. We dive into the rumours and discuss Tarryn’s experience during their time together and what’s happened since then. We hope that this can shed some light on how the law needs to change and helps people everywhere to become more aware of their own trauma patterns, feel empowered to leave and stand up for yourself.”

This morning the podcast hit political twitter and the rest is now history.  Henry Cooke at Stuff has this description:

Former National candidate Jake Bezzant is no longer a member of the party as serious allegations against him from an ex-girlfriend emerge.

A podcast was released publicly on Monday featuring allegations that Bezzant had impersonated the ex-girlfriend, using explicit images of her in order to impersonate her in sexting conversations with other men.

The podcast featured Tarryn Flintoft, who said the behaviour was continuous during and after her relationship with Bezzant, and was still happening in recent weeks about a year after they had broken up …

She said she complained to the police about the matter, who investigated it but could not press charges as Bezzant was not technically breaking the law.

Flintoft alleges that Bezzant then taunted her about the matter not progressing to the courts.

Is Jake apologetic about what he did?  Nope …

Bezzant was asked to respond to the allegations by Stuff. He did not address them directly but said there were “two sides to every story”.

“Personal relationship break ups sometimes get messy. Two sides to every story. There is more than just her and I involved so I am going to respect that and so I am not going to discuss it. This needs to be seen in the context of a relationship break up,” Bezzant said in a written statement.

And another allegation has appeared:

The suggestion that Bezzant’s actions do not constitute a harmful digital communication is interesting.  Section 22 of the Act requires an intent that the material is published with the intent of causing harm.  I guess posting it with the intent of obtaining personal jollies may not qualify.  If so the law should be amended.  Posting intimate photographs of someone without their consent should be an offence.  Louisa Wall’s bill seeking to achieve this should be supported.

The sense of self entitlement and sleaze from within National’s ranks is starting to become overwhelming.

15 comments on “Nick Smith rejoices as Jake Bezzant takes public spotlight off him ”

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  1. Ad 1
    2 June 2021 at 2:57 pm

    Our PM and Ministers get to look useful and compassionate in the major Canterbury crisis – and also National's deepest heartland.

    Meanwhile National ….

    And for further short term contrast:

    Labour's next huge publicity peak will be in 7 days when the Climate Commission plan is made public together with the Government's initial response.

  2. Tiger Mountain 2
    2 June 2021 at 3:24 pm

    …NZ National’s “Merv” said via satellite phone…that Bezzant is “a fine young fellow indeed”…

  3. mary_a 3
    2 June 2021 at 4:40 pm

    Bezzant must have attended the Jonki National Party school of perversion it seems. Sounds like he must have been one of the star pupils, alongside the sleazy pony tail fiddling founder.

    Natz is certainly turning out the deviants at a great rate of knots!

    • ghostwhowalksnz 3.1
      2 June 2021 at 5:07 pm

      Jamie Lee Ross trial coming up, can we cope with endless revelations like this… Makes House of Cards seem like an edwardian melodrama

      • Anne 3.1.1
        2 June 2021 at 6:56 pm

        laugh

        The mind does boggle a bit.

        I think what we are seeing is the fallout from the Cameron Slater era.

        When you look back to the corruption, the back-handers and the rotten, sleazy tricks Slater and his band of fellow nasties got up to over a long period in time, then its not surprising the fallout has eventually spilled over.

        I note that Mark Mitchell has remained very quiet for a long time now. It should be remembered that he had Slater and Co. to thank – for making it into parliament in the first place. And it was not a pretty exercise.

        My pick is, he's biding his time for the right moment then he will launch his attack on Collins and Co. and take over as leader. Luxon is a newbie and I suspect his light has dimmed – for the time being anyway.

  4. Stefan 4
    2 June 2021 at 4:55 pm

    National need to lift their game on recruitment and vetting them BIG time. This guy from what is alledged, which seems very solid, is a psycho. Another JLR. Wonder how many else like this they have.

  5. NzSage 5
    2 June 2021 at 6:17 pm

    Posted this elsewhere, more topical here.

    There is clearly something in the DNA of the National Party that make so many of them deeply flawed human beings.

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300322828/former-national-candidate-jake-bezzant-leaves-party-as-serious-allegations-emerge

  6. Tricledrown 6
    2 June 2021 at 6:24 pm

    Once again Collins tries to shift the blame to Mallard but TVNZ says it was a blue on blue attack.

  7. Muttonbird 7
    2 June 2021 at 9:33 pm

    The National Party selection process seems to deliver a number of entitled, tobacco lobbyist-type brats.

    Could their model be broken, or is that exactly what they intend?

  8. Tricledrown 8
    2 June 2021 at 10:08 pm

    ACT could supersede National with a deeply unpopular Collins leading a rat pack of boorish buffoons this is the party of personal responsibility where no one takes responsibility.National should have sacked smith back in July it should have looked deeper into the backgrounds of its candidates.

    The good old hard working farmers Party has been taken over by the self indulgent never done an honest days work in their lives mysoginist Party animals .

    Now we have a long list of slime balls who have taken the party to new lows with Farrer ,Slater ,Hooten , the,taxpayers union Damien Grant .their biggest influencers .

    Time for National to have a massive clean out ditch the dickheads and rottweiler. Find a leader who can clean up the mess and move on.

    P

  9. Muttonbird 9
    2 June 2021 at 11:04 pm

    Pretty blunt assessment of the state of the National Party at the moment, from a very pro National Party reporter in Jenna Lynch:

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/06/jake-bezzant-scandal-jacinda-ardern-pledges-to-look-at-online-harm-laws-as-ex-girlfriend-describes-humiliation.html

    • ghostwhowalksnz 9.1
      3 June 2021 at 10:13 am

      A little gem in that link

      "Newshub asked Hipango if it was correct that the irreconcilable differences clause was triggered by two of her staffers in the last term….

      The sources told Newshub "they are replacing one bully with another bully".