While most National Party MPs have condemned Jami-Lee Ross, one says we shouldn't be so quick to assume the allegations against him are entirely true.
Multiple women have accused Mr Ross of harassment and bullying, and last week it was revealed Party president Peter Goodfellow brokered a confidentiality agreement between the Botany MP and a woman who complained about his behaviour.
A year-long investigation by Newsroom saw four anonymous women accuse Mr Ross of being manipulative and using "brutal sex" to get compromising information on other people, and reporter Melanie Reid says she knows "at least another five" women with similar stories about him.
National candidate Katrina Bungard told NZME she was harassed for not voting for Mr Ross' wife for chair of the Howick Community Board.
Mr Ross has admitted to having two affairs but last week seemed to suggest he was being set up by National, releasing audio in which Simon Bridges can be heard saying if he gave Mr Ross "natural justice", then "it wouldn't just be four or five [women], it would be 15".
- The Jami-Lee Ross and expenses leak mega-scandal: A timeline
- The ultimate guide to all the players in the Ross vs Bridges showdown
- National would be hypocrites to expel Ross from Parliament - Edwards
But Tim Macindoe, MP for Hamilton West, isn't convinced the allegations of misconduct are entirely true.
"You're jumping to a whole lot of assumptions about behaviour you don't know about and I don't know about," he told Newshub on Tuesday.
"There are allegations that have been made, but I think given the situation we're now in, the best thing is for us all to just step back, allow authorities do the jobs they're needing to do, and I don't think it's helpful for us to be involved in public speculation.
"As I say we have some allegations that have been made, they may be wildly at variance from the facts."
Despite seeming to give Mr Ross the benefit of the doubt, Mr Macindoe says he still has confidence in Mr Bridges as party leader.
"I think he's been faced with a very difficult week, and it would have been an incredibly difficult position for anybody to be in. I think he's handled himself as well as anyone could in such difficult and unpredictable circumstances."
He says Mr Bridges' decision to pursue the investigation into who leaked his expenses - which pointed to Mr Ross as the probable culprit - was the right one.
"After all we were all under suspicion a few weeks ago of having leaked the expenses material. I didn't like being under that suspicion, I don't think anybody did. I'm certainly of the view that it was right to ensure we obtained that information.
"Obviously it's very unfortunate that everything else has panned out the way it has, but I do think it was the right thing to find out where the leak came from because as a caucus we have to be able to have trust in each other and in our discipline as a team, and I'm glad that was re-established."
Newshub.
