On Newstalk ZB Clayton Cosgrove has followed the Labour party bus driving over Matt McCarten as he cops all the blame for the intern scheme.
No sooner than the National Party had their, you know, let’s say drama or debate last week, some would say it’s a little more serious than that, but Labour then had the situation with the foreign students coming in here.
Now Clayton, I’ll start with you this time, how did the Labour Party not know about the conditions?
Clayton Cosgrove: Oh well as I understand Matt McCarten, who used to be employed by the Labour Party…
It’s unclear when his employment ceased but McCarten says in May but he didn’t announce it until 11 June. There seems to be no doubt that McCarten was purportedly working for Labour while he was working on this scheme.
… came up with one of his you know you beaut ideas and Matt’s sort of characterised as a guru, god only knows why, he destroyed the New Labour Party, he destroyed the Alliance and everything he touches turns to the proverbial.
More colourful than others in Labour but joining in the ‘blame Matt’ chorus.
But nonetheless he came up with this idea, he was the author of it, he was the coordinator of it, we found out, and as I understand certain commitments were made to these young people, those commitments weren’t honoured.
Andrew Little found out about the detail of it, ah and stepped in right away and said, well, you know even though it’s gonna work for me (?) he started this, he’s put this together, we’re going to fix it.
Little said on Q+A he knew about the idea early in the year, and he knew that an unauthorised programme was operating when interns were arriving at least as far back as mid-May, so “stepped in right away” is disingenuous.
And as of today my understanding is, I think there’s about sixty plus of the eighty who want to remain. I understand they’ve been billeted out, those commitments that have been made to them I believe have been honoured, ah and you don’t see Andrew Little making excuses, blaming other people, having amnesia.
Except that they are trying to excise Labour and put all the blame on McCarten.
He stepped into the space and said “we are fixing it”, ah and my understanding is it has been fixed.
Just so people understand, these are intern programs that are run all over the world. National party people, Labour party people go all over the world, Young Nats, Young Labour and they fight campaigns.
And I must say that the weapons grade hypocrisy of the Maori Party who came out and slammed us for having interns, well if you go onto their web page and look under the volunteers and go down about three boxes it says “do you want to be an intern?”
Disingenuous. Yes, the Maori party has an intern option on their website under Volunteer, but there is no suggestion of any foreign volunteers or students on visas being sought.
So you know putting that aside, but the point is Andrew Little got the detail, commitments were not lived up to, he moved in, it’s been fixed. And I think that actually shows ah leadership, not dodging and weaving and hiding behind a gorse bush.
Cosgrove is spinning the standard Labour line that Andrew Little spun yesterday on Q+A and that has been obvious on The Standard.
He’s more colourful in his comments on McCarten but joins in the blame game and hypocritically says that they are not “making excuses, blaming other people”.
Cosgrove has continued the dodging and weaving that Little and others have been doing.