The clause Jacinda refuses to use

Below is an extract from a standard employment contract for staff who work in the office of a parliamentary party leader.

As you can see the employment of a staff member can be terminated by the party leader, under “breakdown of relationship”. This doesn’t need an inquiry, a disciplinary process, a finding of misconduct. It just needs the party leader to decide they no longer have trust and confidence in the staffer.

Note this is a process that can only be initiated by the party leader under 22.3(b). Not the chief of staff, not Parliamentary Service, not the external political party.

It is quite commonly used. For a number of reasons a party leader will sometimes find they don’t want someone to continue working for them. It doesn’t mean the person is guilty of anything, or has even misbehaved. It just reflects that the leader has to be able to only have people working for them they are entirely comfortable with.

Jacinda Ardern has the sole ability to effectively activate this clause and remove the staffer from Parliament. She is aware of the dozen complaints against her staffer. She is aware at least one of them is of sexual assault. She is aware at least four parliamentary staffers have said they are scared to be around her employee.

She does not need to make a determination as to what happened. She does not need to have an inquiry. She doesn’t need formal complaints. She doesn’t need the Police. She doesn’t need to believe or disbelieve the allegations. She certainly doesn’t need the Labour Party Council involved. She can simply decide that she no longer wants the staffer to continue working for her.

Her insistence that this matter is nothing to do with her is patently false. She has a remedy open to her. It is inconceivable she has not discussed with her senior staff whether to use this clause. It appears she has made a conscious decision not to use it, because the staffer is so valuable to her.