Lisa Owen interviews Conservative Party board member John Stringer

John Stringer reveals he wrote to the party “about a year ago” concerned about the “awkwardness in the relationship” between Colin Craig and Press Secretary Rachel MacGregor and predicting it would “blow up in Colin’s face” during the election campaign.

Says it’s “untrue” for Craig to say board members had not raised concerns about his relationship with MacGregor. “the board has discussed this almost monthly perhaps for a year. Even before this matter came up we had concerns, and this has been discussed at length”

Says Party put chaperone system in place due to concerns about the relationship

“We’re not suggesting anything went on physically between these two people. We don’t have any evidence of that. However, it has now transpired that this was an inappropriate relationship.”
Stringer damns culture of “confidentiality and gagging people” inside the Conservative Party

“I am sick of the confidentiality being used to cover up abhorrent behaviour, and I want to restore the dignity of the Conservative Party”

“We’ve got documentation of moral infractions by the leader of our party, and I think the board has the right to discuss that collegially”.

Says he believes Craig’s sauna session on Newsworthy is a “red herring” but other board members raised it with Craig.

Says it’s “completely untenable for Colin to be leader of a political party, particularly a conservative party”.

Is disappointed Garth McVicar won’t take over as leader, but says the party has “wonderfully skilled people” and will survive this.

Lisa Owen: To discuss what’s going on, Conservative Party board member John Stringer joins me live. Good morning.
John Stringer: Morning, Lisa.
You’re here reluctantly this morning, but--
Very reluctantly.
You want to get some facts on the table. Why are you so wary about speaking up?
Well, because there’s a culture in the Conservative Party of confidentiality and gagging people, and people who speak up and try and hold Colin Craig to account or criticise him in any way tend to get isolated and hounded out of the party. I am sick of the confidentiality being used to cover up abhorrent behaviour, and I want to restore the dignity of the Conservative Party and defend due process.
Okay, well, tell us a little about what happened yesterday. The board was due to meet at a hotel. It all went awry when Colin Craig resigned. What was going on behind the scenes at the hotel?
Well, a large number of the board called a special board meeting on top of our regular scheduled board meeting which is due in a week to discuss the leadership issues and the rumours swirling around Colin which has been happening for several months. We have had serious concerns for quite some time, and have discussed that at length at various times at board level. So a special meeting was called by the chairman and all members were summoned to that meeting in Auckland last night. I flew up from Christchurch; other people drove up from Hamilton. Yesterday afternoon, to everybody’s surprise, Colin Craig arbitrarily postponed our board meeting, which he has no right to do, and then said he was enhancing a review of the leadership process. Colin Craig isn’t enhancing anything. He has resigned from the party. He’s no longer on the board, because he sat there ex-officio. None of us are aware of this review. It’s never been discussed in the board. We should have had the board meeting yesterday, so half of us met and the other half were absent.
So, he gazumped you? Goes and holds his own press conference and gazumps the process, basically?
That’s right. He just announced on nationwide media at 3:30 that the board meeting had been postponed, and the first any of us knew about that press conference was watching it on TV.
But looking at it from Mr Craig’s point of view, he built this party from nothing to the fifth-largest at the last election. Why are you trying to force him out of his own party?
Well, because it’s not just about Colin Craig. This is not a personality movement. This is supposed to be a democratic party that is trying to do politics differently. We’re about transparency. One of the key policies of this party is binding referendum – giving the people more of a voice. Unfortunately, that is not the culture of the Conservative Party at the moment, and various board members are trying to re-establish governance and transparency and processes that keep us accountable to one another and keep this party transparent for the people that we’re trying to represent.
Okay, well, you mentioned before allegations swirling around him about his relationship with press secretary Rachel MacGregor. You’ve been worried about this for more than a year, haven’t you?
Yes, I actually wrote to the party about a year ago, concerned about this. This has come up a number of different times, and it’s time that this got spoken about openly, because the board has confronted him about this matter, which has been a Damocles sword hanging over us for quite some time. And he has lied to us about the nature of this matter, and we now find subsequently, with the revelations coming out, which is why this board meeting was called. We wanted to hear what he had to say. It should have been discussed behind closed doors, and now we find these allegations are out, and what we were told continually by him is not in fact true.
Okay, Mr Stringer, I want to be clear. You write, and your concerns are about what, specifically? What are you worried about in terms of the relationship with the press secretary?
There were widespread concerns in the party membership and amongst the part numbers in the board about the awkwardness in the relationship between those two people. That was seen by almost everybody and commented on quite widely. I wrote to the party and said, ‘this is going to blow up in Colin’s face at a strategic point in the election campaign’, and I was concerned about that and suggested a number of parameters we might put in to assist that not happening. I offered to come up myself and assist where I could at my own expense and try and alleviate clearly what were some difficulties.
You used the terms awkward and inappropriate there, but let’s be clear. You do not have any evidence of a sexual relationship.
No, absolutely not. But I think the nature of the relationship seemed to be to some people to be rather intense, and that was creating complications for a number of the officials, and I’ve got no comment about that. That’s a private matter. But at a political level, we had concerns that this was begin- this was starting to become a story.
Okay. So not a relationship as such. So are you saying sexual harassment?
Well, that’s one of the accusations that I’d like to hear Colin explain, because that’s what a number of people are saying. I don’t have any evidence of that myself, but there is a lot of documentary evidence now out there that the board needs to discuss, because things are being released in the media. This is now a public story. And the board has not met to discuss these matters and talk together as colleagues.
Okay. Well, let’s put the media reportage to one side. You’re saying, though, you yourself were uncomfortable with that relationship; there were issues, so you wrote about it.
I did. I wrote formally to Colin through the CEO of the party-
And you raised it.
Yes.
Okay. Because I’m just wanting now play you a clip of Colin Craig addressing that question about whether anyone on the board raised questions about the nature of the relationship. Let’s have a listen.
Paul Henry: Are there members on the board who feel that you have not been honest with them about any dealings that you’ve had with Rachel MacGregor or indeed there was an inappropriate relationship that you haven’t been honest with them about?
Colin Crag: No board member has ever raised that concern with me. I have not ever been accused of being dishonest.
Lisa Owen: That was Friday morning. So what’s your response to that? Because he’s saying nobody brought it up.
John Stringer: That is completely untrue. Because the board has discussed this almost monthly perhaps for a year. Even before this matter came up we had concerns, and this has been discussed at length and comes up all the time. When we had the briefing of the regional chairman, the very first question that was asked of Colin by the regional chairman was this matter. So Colin cannot say this has not been raised.
So Colin Craig’s lying, that’s what you’re saying.
What he’s just said is untrue.
Well, that’s a lie, isn’t it? This is a man who’s campaigned on high moral standards and bringing different kind of politics. Are you telling me that he’s telling untruths?
Well, it’s certainly not the experience that I’ve had around the board table, and it’s been discussed many times when I’ve been there, and I’ve discussed it myself with Colin. So I don’t know what he means.
Okay. Well, we understand that Rachel MacGregor has complained to the Human Rights Commission about sexual harassment. What do you know about that?
Well, that’s another accusation that we’re aware of as a board. Again, we haven’t had an opportunity to discuss that, because Colin arbitrarily postponed our board meeting yesterday, which he doesn’t have a right to do, and only half the board met. I understand by design half of the board was discouraged from attending to deprive ourselves a quorum so that we could vote on the matter or at least put the accusations on the table, because we’ve now got them in writing. We’ve got documentation of moral infractions by the leader of our party, and I think the board has the right to discuss that collegially. Colin was in the media yesterday talking about the wonderful summer camp collegiality of the Conservative Party, and then out of the blue postpones our meeting and cancels it. I don’t know whether we’re going to have a board meeting on Saturday, because he circumvents process when it suits him and hold people to account when the process suits him.
But, just to be clear, you were so concerned about this relationship and what might be going on that the party instituted some kind of chaperone, didn’t you?
Yes, we put a chaperone system in place just to help avert some of the perceptions people had that this was untoward and this was unwise. We’re not suggesting anything went on physically between these two people. We don’t have any evidence of that. However, it has now transpired that this was an inappropriate relationship.
Okay, I just want to ask you this very briefly. How much of this, of Colin being rolled or resigning has to do with that Newsworthy sauna interview?
I think the Newsworthy sauna matter is a red herring. But it- this was raised on the 10th of June by two board members with Colin, despite the fact he’s denied that in the media; again we come back to that problem of untruths. The issue for the board is a continuing pattern of judgement calls and whether Colin has political acumen.
Okay. Well, let’s talk about that in the time that we’ve got left. Colin Craig always said he wanted to do politics differently; that he ran a moral agenda. So given that, does it make it impossible for him to go on as the leader of the Conservatives? Could he come back?
I think in light of the documented accusations that have been tabled in the media, it’s completely untenable for Colin to be a leader of a political party, particularly a conservative party. I mean, Colin has always espoused one law for all. But in fact, there are two rules here – one for Colin Craig and one for the rest of us. So the board is attempting to hold him to account and at least get him in before the board to discuss these matters in a collegial way that he has advertised we function at.
Okay. Who do you want to be the new leader?
Well, there are a number of options before us. We’re not short of options. There are a number of-
Garth McVicar has told this programme he’s not interested.
I’m disappointed to hear that-
Others have told us they’re not interested.
We’ve been having conversations with people for several months.
Who’s your pick?
I think Garth McVicar is a very good fit for us. I think Bob McCoskerie would be a very good fit for us-
From your point of view, though, it’s a shame because Garth McVicar categorically says he doesn’t want it, in writing, to us.
I respect that.
So have you not made the biggest mistake in politics? You’ve staged a coup with no one to take over.
We do have a model move, and we’ve been discussing that since Christmas. We want to do things differently. We have talked about restructuring our leadership governance and approaching politics a little bit differently, perhaps like the Greens do or some of the other groups. We can do things differently. But, really, that’s a conversation to have after the developments of yesterday. We had to resolve the Colin Craig issues. And unfortunately, this story has become all about him and not the Conservative Party. We are a fantastic party. We’ve got wonderfully skilled people in this party who are not getting a voice-
In a word, can you survive this?
We can. We will. The party is much stronger than Colin Craig.
Thank you very much for joining me this morning. John Stringer.
You’re welcome.
Transcript provided by Able. www.able.co.nz

ENDS

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