Luxon defends handling of Uffindell report, not shared with colleagues

National MPs have not seen an executive summary of the report into Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell, and say they would not expect to.

Party leader Christopher Luxon, Party President Sylvia Wood and Uffindell himself gave statements to media yesterday about the outcome of the report by Maria Dew KC, looking into allegations of further bullying and aggressive behaviour while Uffindell was at University.

They announced Uffindell had been reinstated to the party caucus after he was suspended in early August over the allegations, but did not release the terms of reference for the investigation, nor did they release an executive summary of the findings.

Heading into the weekly caucus meeting this morning, Luxon was defending the party's approach to the report, saying its key parts were faithfully communicated in yesterday's statements.

"What I'd say to you is all the statements that Sylvia, myself and Sam read out to you yesterday were actually all run through Maria Dew as well and they're a faithful representation - she was comfortable with communicating the findings of the report.

"From the beginning we wanted a process where everybody could genuinely come in and feel safe and secure and given the personal nature of those allegations we set up a process to do that."

Luxon would not say the complainant who raised allegations - that Uffindell pounded on her bedroom door, screaming obscenities, until she fled through her window - was lying.

"I'm not saying that ... first of all Maria Dew says look, events did not transpire as they were reported or alleged in the media, but as you heard Sam say there was a fractious, deteriorating flatting relationship, there were things he wasn't proud about in terms of the langugage he may have used, but the reality is Maria Dew determined that those events did not transpire as they were alleged."

The second objective of the investigation was to see whether Uffindell, who was also removed from King's College after severely beating a younger boy and openly admitted he had been a bully, had changed his ways.

"We wanted to be reassured this individual has changed, has turned his life around, is a different person. Our own reference checking confirmed that, Maria Dew's report confirmed that, and as a result that's where we got to yesterday," Luxon said.

Several of National's MPs confirmed they had not seen the report, nor an executive summary of it, with several saying they would not have expected to.

Todd Muller drove Uffindell home after the bullying revelations and accusations came to light, and said the party had made the right call.

"Maria Dew is incredibly respected and I think the fact that the leader has said 'look, I want to get to the bottom of this, I want to make sure that there's opportunity for people who if they wished to contribute to the process they can, it's completely arm's length, it's completely independent, she's done that ... she's come back with essentially a vindication for Sam.

"It's really important that it has been independent and comprehensive and, you know, it obviously has resulted in Sam being able to come back which I am really pleased for him, for Julia and for the people of Tauranga.

He said Luxon's statements "totally reflects" the information that was shared with the caucus.

Chris Bishop said it was important the report remain confidential.

"It was deliberately a confidential report to enable people to come forward and offer their submissions or their experiences and I think it was really important that it was done like that and highly appropriate."

He argued the statements made by Luxon and Wood were equivalent to an executive summary.

"The party has released an executive summary of the report - the details that were provided to the media yesterday are a summary of the report provided by Maria Dew KC - so the salient facts and details are in the public domain."

He said they went into the same level of detail as Labour had when dealing with allegations about its youth wing in 2018.

"The full report was not released - and it's really important that those reports that are done in confidence are not released so that people can submit and participate in the inquiry and investigations like that with the full freeness and frankness that they would expect."