Critics are continuing to pile the pressure on National for their handling of the Sam Uffindell bullying scandal with an ex-MP saying the Opposition is a "dysfunctional party".
It's been a turbulent week for National and its leader Christopher Luxon after its newest MP - Tauranga's Uffindell - was stood down from the party's caucus on Tuesday night pending an investigation into allegations of bullying behaviour in his younger years.
Former New Zealand First and Labour Party MP Shane Jones has continued pilling pressure on the party, slamming National for their handling of the Uffindell scandal.
"I think that his 2IC (second in charge) showed the judgement of a mid-level bureaucratic manager," Jones told Newshub Nation co-host Oriini Kaipara on Saturday.
"The reality is, this is a guy who's been subjected to media trial and his leader needs to ensure that due process is shown and that the guy is not destroyed based on things that happened 20 years ago.
"There are no good outcomes, however, either a by-election, an independent member of Parliament or on the backbench as a lame duck."
Former Labour president Mike Williams, appearing alongside Jones on Newshub Nation's panel, agreed - saying National is a "dysfunctional party".
"There's something badly wrong going on in the National Party if the leader does not know that this thing's going to come out of the woodwork," Williams said.
"Now, the story sort of changed over the week where Chris Luxon said, I think on Wednesday that his staff knew of the accusation of the admission of Sam Uffindell, but it's really difficult to believe that."
Jones believes Uffindell will not survive in politics even if National give him their blessing following the investigation.
"You've got to be straight up. He will not survive in the event that the leader of the National Party and the Clic around him want him back," Jones said.
"The only way he can survive is if the QC does not find grounds for him to be decapitated."
Williams said he would not have selected Uffindell.
"I was president of the Labour Party for nine years and went through three rounds of selections, both of electorate candidates and lists.
"He would not have had my vote because when you hear about this kind of thing, no matter whether it's 20 years ago, there is a victim out there. As soon as that person puts the hit up in public, the victim is quite likely to come out in public."
Luxon told Newshub Nation earlier on the show the party didn't have a "systemic cultural problem".
"What we are very excited about is, in the last seven months, we have re-tooled our candidate selection process. We have 90 percent of the people reaching out to us, wanting to explore candidacy, who we've never met and they come from all walks of life," he said.
But Luxon admitted the party needed to do more when it came to diversity.
Jones said diversity was badly lacking in the National Party.
"I think the foolish thing that Christopher Luxon said, is that Sam bought a new branch of diversity.
"Look, Sam had been out of the country for a long time, as I understand. He had only recently come back. He had jumped on the waka with Todd [Muller], the Bay of Plenty member and I really think that this speaks volumes about the delegates who select the people for Tauranga."
Watch the full interview with Shane Jones and Mike Williams above.
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