My name Tam married with two children and | live in Auckland, Tama
member of the Labour Party. I met Dr Worth first during the 2008 election campaign.
The first individual contact I had with Dr Worth was on 26 November 2008 at 1.55pm when I
received a text from him, esking me to meet him. I did not know who the text was from at that
stage so I called the number. He asked me to meet him at a café at Sylvia Park. During that
meeting he offered me a job as his ethnic affairs advisor.
He then called me after the meeting offering me another job, as a board member. That same
day he also sent me a text which included his email address and which said “This (the email
address) is not secure but texting is”
Dr Worth told me I could have the job but I would have to leave the Labour Party and join the
National Party.
Soon afier I left to visit my family overseas. During that trip I had texts and phone cells from
Dr Worth. Many of these also left me uncomfortable. These conversations ranged frem asking
me to buy a transparent garment for myself and whether I wanted a welcome banner at the
airport when I returned,
At this stage I was uncomfortable with his tone and his approach. I was also worried because I
began to realise his phone calls and text messages had a different meaning to what I originally
thought.
Around this time he also started ending his texts with “xxx”. I did not realise what this meant
at first and had to ask my husband what they meant. There were also texts asking when we
were going swiraming together.
Several of the phone calls made by Dr Worth to me were vulgar, sexually explicit, and 1
believe were made when he was drunk. On one occasion he asked me if'T prayed for
something to happen to my husband so we could be together.
J showed respect to Dr Worth as an older person and as a Minster of the Crown but I
repeatedly made it clear to him that ] didn’t want a relationship with him.
The text messages and phone calls were frequent from 26 November 2008 to 23 February
2009. The texts were carefully worded but need to be read in context with the phone calls.
During that period I received approximately 40 text messages and more than 60 phone calls.
I do not think that text messages and phone calls made by Dr Worth to me were acceptable,
‘They were unwanted. They left me feeling uncomfortable,
I went to Mr Goff earlier this year because I wanted the contact from Dr Worth to stop. [have
not sought any publicity, but feel I need to speak out because Prime Minister John Key has
said that there was no evidence of Dr Worth’s inappropriate behaviour and that my
membership of the Labour Party somehow lessened my credibility
1 am happy to provide copies of the text messages which T still have and phone records to Mr
Key and to meet with him if that would help.
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun