There is a great deal of chatter at the moment about bullying and bullying culture. Most of it is focused on the school boy actions of Sam Uffindell. But a lone voice has written a column in the NZ Herald talking about the bullying inside Parliament, and especially inside the Labour party. Dr Gaurav Sharma, the Labour MP for Hamilton West has dropped a bombshell, and his last line in the article is a killer…probably for his career:
For those who need an example, Louisa Wall talked in her valedictory speech about how she was bullied by a senior Labour Party MP early in her career and despite being one of our most outspoken MPs she found out that she had no agency in the halls of Parliament when it came to her own wellbeing.
If any of my more recent colleagues could speak freely, I am sure the list of similar stories with no support for MPs being bullied and no consequences for MPs bullying their colleagues would easily fill a book or two.
NZ Herald
So, a Labour MP gets inoculated with truth serum and blurts out in a column in NZ’s biggest news outlet that his colleagues are being bullied by their colleagues and get no support. This is going to be awkward at the next caucus meeting.
The above Member-to-Member and Party-to-Member bullying rampant in Parliament is – I believe – promoted and facilitated by this very organisation by working behind the scenes with the Whips Office, the Offices of the Leaders of various Parties, along with the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister’s Office.
NZ Herald
Jacinda is a mean girl! But not just the Prime Minister; all levels from the Prime Minister’s office down to other leader’s offices, whips and Parliamentary Services itself.
With the way the current Parliamentary Service is run, you can go weeks and months before getting a reply to urgent issues and when they do have an answer it is seldom in writing and often from behind the desk of the party whips who – in my opinion, and based on what I have seen in my time in Parliament – use the Parliamentary Service to bully and harass their MPs “to keep them in line”.
NZ Herald
This guy is a doctor, so well used to using precise language. In this instance, he is very precise. He uses words like “bully” and “harass”. He is not referring to a 16-year-old teenager doing something at a boarding school 22 years ago, he is talking about the leadership of parties and in particular his own party, the Labour party.
Where concerns have been raised with Parliamentary Service about staff or MP colleagues showing unacceptable behaviours in some cases there does not appear to have ever been any investigation or an intent to investigate.
If anything, in my experience, when an MP raises serious concerns the Parliamentary Service steps back, stonewalls the conversation, ghosts the MP and throws them to the Whip’s Office to be gaslighted and victimised further so that the party can use the information to threaten you about your long-term career prospects.
NZ Herald
Whoar! Now he’s getting really serious. That is particularly strong language – “victimised”, “ghosted” and “gaslighted” – this is the language people use to describe serial and unrepentant abusers. Remember, he says this behaviour goes right to the top of the Government.
His final sentence is going to get him in deep, deep trouble.
Politicians especially at top of our current system and from parties across the political spectrum often talk about “changing the system” and “kindness,” but as the saying goes “charity must start at home”.
NZ Herald
That is a direct attack on the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. His career is effectively over as of now. David Farrar points out the elephant in the room:
At the very least he will be demoted down the ranks of the back bench, and he is certainly going to find out just how nasty and spiteful his fellow Labour MPs are…though I suspect he already knows that, hence his hard-hitting article.
He’ll be on the naughty chair for quite some time.
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