The new president of the Labour Party has acknowledged the Darren Hughes case was not handled well.
But Moira Coatsworth is confident the failure of Labour's Parliamentary leader Phil Goff to tell senior party figures about the matter will not happen again.
Mrs Coatsworth, who took over from Andrew Little as president at a meeting of the party's New Zealand council on Saturday, says it is now time to get past the distraction of Mr Hughes and focus on the issues that matter to people.
Mr Little has stepped down as party president to concentrate on campaigning to win the New Plymouth electorate in the general election.
