Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern doesn't believe there are widespread issues of bullying across the party, but says employment matters will be raised from time-to-time in a large workplace.
MP Gaurav Sharma has made accusations of bullying and gaslighting within Parliament, and claimed an unnamed Labour MP and a parliamentary staff member had misused taxpayers' money, though Parliamentary Service has determined no spending rules were broken.
Ardern told Morning Report accusations of bullying levelled at another MP, Anna Lorck, in a story reported on Stuff, are being looked into.
"If issues are raised, and they have been, those issues do need to be investigated, and they are," Ardern says.
"That's the reason we're not commenting on that one, because it is the subject of an employment investigation."
She doesn't believe it's a widespread issue across the Labour team.
"Across 65 MPs we have, at my last rough count, we have 237 staff that will be in employment.
"There will be from time-to-time issues in those employment relationships.
"I won't necessarily always know if there are employment issues that have been raised, but I do have an expectation that they will be worked through.
"And I would expect that there are interventions, as there were in the case of Dr Sharma."
Interventions over issues raised by Sharma's staff illustrated how things have changed since the 2019 Francis report on bullying and harassment of staff at Parliament, she says.
"There are high expectations on MPs around the way that they work and manage staff.
"He hasn't agreed always with those attempts at constructive interventions."
Ardern has seen nothing to substantiate claims Sharma has made, she says, including on misspending by another MP, and his allegations did not warrant an independent investigation as called for by his Hamilton West electorate committee.
"There's an example there where he's claimed inappropriate use of funds by other MPs. That has not been substantiated
"We need to resolve the issues at hand - those who are employed by him to ensure they're well looked after and that their workplace is positive.
"The second is what we do about the way he's raised this issue.
"He did not raise this either directly or indirectly with me ... so there is an issue here that we have ways in our team of escalating issues that he has not used and so that does present problems but that's for us to work through as a team."



6 comments
Accusations.
Posted on 15-08-2022 12:40 | By morepork
"...were unsubstantiated", but no independent investigation was held. Perfect scenario for a cover-up, even if there wasn't one. Failure to follow established procedures for such cases is serious and Dr. Gupta has shot himself in the foot by not doing so.
Labour are the bullies
Posted on 15-08-2022 15:11 | By Johnney
The general public are being bullied into 3 waters, name changes of places, mandates on unvaccinated people, changing the DHB’s in the middle of a health crisis, changing bus systems by putting councils in charge, pushing ahead with Te PuaPua. The list goes on. None of which was campaigned on. Supporting Trevor Mallard. Not supporting Louise Walls. Rejecting everything that is raised against them. Rejecting the premise of any serious question.
@ Johnney
Posted on 15-08-2022 18:58 | By Yadick
Very well said. Excellent comment.
Jacinda says...
Posted on 16-08-2022 13:35 | By morepork
... it's all under control and there are processes in place to deal with it. I can't help wondering if she was bullied into saying that...
Agree Johney
Posted on 16-08-2022 16:52 | By Kancho
Now Labour have suspended Dr Sharma from Labour caucus wow that's really dealing with criticism. Punishment ? for speaking out? Certainly he will be pushed out and away . Seems familiar Louisa Walls treatment was appalling . Talk about bullying actions as well as words speak volumes
No evidence
Posted on 17-08-2022 14:03 | By Merlin
No evidence was produced of his claims and in fact he had an employment matter inquiry under way in his electorate office and some staff have said it was the other way round. Put up or shut up as the saying goes but he chose not to attend to present his case.
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