Victims Advocate Louise Nicholas - Labour should have brought in “specialist support”
“When there is a complaint especially a serious complaint of sexual assault, the first thing that should have happened
was specialist support brought in to ensure that the complainants needs were met. That hasn’t happened.”
Louise Nicholas says the Labour party needs to have policies and procedures in place to deal with allegations like this,
“regardless of if it’s a sexual assault or harassment or bullying they need to have something in place so that those
people that are complaining that are going to their leaders saying this is what’s happening, those people know what to
do with this, and obviously they don’t at this stage.”
Louise Nicholas says this is something leaders in all organisations or institutions should have in place, “it’s about
having people there to actually support those that come forward, because it actually takes a hell of a lot of guts and
courage and strength to come forward with such allegations.”
Louise Nicholas would like to see an independent body like a Victims Commission put in place.
Please find the full interview here.
Q+A, 9:30pm Mondays on TVNZ 1 and one hour later on TVNZ 1 + 1.
Streamed live at www.tvnz.co.nz
Thanks to the support from NZ On Air.