[20] However, he has described legalisation of same-sex marriage as "social engineering",[21] and is also opposed to gay adoption,[22] adolescent access to abortion,[22] and voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide.

[22] In May 2012, Craig described New Zealand's young men and women as "the most promiscuous in the world" based upon surveys such as David P. Schmitt's International Sexuality Description Project research statistics[23] and anecdotal evidence from New Zealand gynaecologists,[24] a statement which was dismissed by Prime Minister John Key[25] and other political leaders like Tariana Turia and Winston Peters.

[31] Following the legalisation of same sex marriage in April 2013,[32] Craig said "the day of reckoning" would come, that it was a "failure of democracy"[33] and that "[it] was not a vote of the people of New Zealand," adding "If it had been, the answer would have been no.

[43][44] The party contested the 2011 general election on a variety of issues, including the introduction of binding referendums, reducing the number of members of parliament while increasing the electoral term by one year, law and order reform (including work for prisoners), a repeal of the New Zealand emissions trading scheme, the protection of state assets (notably the foreshore and seabed), and fiscal conservatism.

[52] In February 2014, the-then Green Party co-leader Russel Norman alleged that Colin Craig held misogynistic and homophobic attitudes during a speech at the Big Gay Out event in Auckland.

[10][55] Following sexual harassment allegations that were published on the right-wing blogger Cameron Slater's blog Whale Oil, Craig resigned as party leader on 19 June 2015 and also agreed to "facilitate a review" of the leadership.

He also threatened to sue several media outlets over allegations that he had paid off his former secretary MacGregor over a complaint of sexual harassment to the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.

In response, MacGregor accused the former Conservative leader for breaching a confidentiality agreement the pair had reached under Human Rights Commission mediation and disputed his version of the events.

[65] According to the Herald, several board members of the Conservative Party including John Stringer, Christine Rankin, and Laurence Day have indicated support for a change of leadership.

[14] On 29 July 2015, Colin Craig announced that he was going to sue several opponents including Conservative Party member John Stringer, the right wing blogger Cameron Slater and New Zealand Taxpayers' Union's president Jordan Williams for alleged defamation.

In addition, Craig also circulated a booklet, entitled "Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas", which he claimed outlined a "campaign of defamatory lies" against him.

[71] On 10 August 2015, John Stringer lodged a complaint against Colin Craig with the New Zealand Police, alleging that the later had exceeded his allocated election fund legal limit by NZ$2,000 when contesting the East Coast Bays electorate in 2014.

[75] On 7 November 2015, Colin Craig was outed as the anonymous "Mr X" who posed as a party whistleblower that was interviewed in the "Dirty Politics" booklet delivered earlier in July.

[15] On 24 November, it was reported that Craig had demanded that the blogger Cameron Slater pay him NZ$15,000 as compensation for reproducing a poem written for his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor on his blog Whale Oil.

[80] In April 2016, the High Court ruled that the telecommunications company Vodafone could not disclose private email correspondence between Craig and former party member John Stringer, who welcomed the decision.

[81] On 5 September 2016, Colin Craig appeared in the Auckland High Court to face a defamation lawsuit filed by Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams.

Williams admitted this was the case but asserted that Craig's alleged inappropriate relationship with MacGregor made him an unsuitable leader for a "Christian movement based on family values.

In her testimony, MacGregor cited a disagreement about her pay rate as the final straw in her decision to resign as press secretary two days before the 2014 general election.

[92][93] On 19 September, Craig denied sending any sex text messages to Rachel McGregor but during cross-examination was unable to provide evidence supporting his claim.

[94] The following day, Craig denied that he charged a 29.5% interest rate on MacGregor's loan in order to coerce her into dropping her sexual harassment claim against him.

[99] On 22 September, former Conservative Party board member Laurence Day disputed Rachel MacGregor's claim that Colin Craig had sexually harassed her on the grounds that Williams had failed to present the incriminating alleged "sext" text message.

Mills also contended that Williams had broken MacGregor's trust by passing information on her relationship with Craig to other Conservative Party officials and Cameron Slater's blog Whale Oil.

While Williams and his supporters including Cameron Slater have welcomed the decision, Craig's lawyers have announced that they would be appealing the verdict and challenging the size of the damages awarded.

Justice Katz indicated that the two parties had until 26 April 2017 to consent to the High Court substituting its own award or setting aside the earlier verdict and ordering a retrial.

It transpired during the trial that Slater had been rung by a barrister that he knew (and whose identity vocation and area of practice he had chosen to keep anonymous) was in fact working for Colin Craig.

[129][130] Jacky Stiekema (described in blog posts by Stringer as "Grandma Quilts" to protect her privacy[131]) had previously worked as a senior trust account manager at Craig's Centurion company.

It was felt in some quarters that perhaps the more recent litigation was in retaliation for this as it appeared difficult to ascertain Craig's motivation for suing Stiekema and that he had failed "to disclose a serious tort".

[132] At the time of Stiekema's 2012 Employment Court hearing, it was reported that Craig had made remarks claiming that "shortness" was the result of sin; an allusion to the Biblical character Zaccheus the tax collector.

[135] On 25 October, Auckland High Court Judge Kit Toogood ruled that Craig had committed "moderately serious sexual harassment" against MacGregor.

[144] The court delivered a verdict identical to the Craig v Slater trial regarding defamation in the booklet “Dirty Politics & Hidden Agendas.” In the Stringer verdict, the judge ruled Mr Stringer had been defamed multiple times by C. and H. Craig, as well as by party officials/members A. Storr, K. Stitt and S. Taylor, but that they were all covered by a qualified privilege defence, and the case was therefore dismissed.