Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has suspended Hamilton West Labour MP, Dr Gaurav Sharma effective immediately for “repeated breaches of trust”.
The decision to suspend the Hamilton West MP was “unanimous” and announced at a media conference just after 4.30pm today.
The decision came following a special caucus meeting convened by the Labour Party today afternoon after a chain of serious public accusations of ‘rampart’ bullying in its ranks by Dr Sharma began snowballing, bringing the party to disrepute.
Dr Sharma who claimed having been ‘bullied’, did not attend the meeting in spite of repeated vain efforts by the PM herself to reach him.
Dr Sharma had reportedly already invited a group of local community members for a luncheon meeting this afternoon -purportedly to garner their support.
The first time MP, Dr Sharma is yet to respond to our request for his comments.
His suspension from caucus means he “will continue as Hamilton West MP and be expected to be present in Parliament, however, hw will lo longer participate in any caucus events or activities unless caucus’ permission is granted.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern believes this to be the “most appropriate” response to Dr Sharma’s “repeated breaches of trust” as MPs are expected to deal with their problems through internal available channels.
But Dr Sharma’s contention was he had gone public as a last resort. “I have been driven to this point because even now the party and it’s leadership refuses to believe that there is a problem,” he wrote in his post on social media.
The door for Dr Sharma’s return to caucus has, however, not been completely shut as a review of this suspension decision will take place in December. That depends if trust with him was able to be restored.
“If he does that there’s a pathway back, if he doesn’t then he will be expelled,” Ardern said.
Options at that time could include continued suspension, a return to caucus, or expulsion.
In 2010, Labour MP Chris Carter was also expelled from caucus for sending anonymous letters to some journalists claiming that there were other MPs who could do a better job than Phil Goff, Labour leader at that time.
His allegation of being bullied was first mentioned by him in an opinion piece he wrote for Herald. This was followed in detail on his Facebook page.
Dr Sharma went public on social media with his accusations that his complaints about “incompetent” staff were not investigated, nor was his complaint to the PM’s office, but instead he was ironically “bullied” by the party whips.
On the contrary, earlier the PM mentioned about multiple complaints about Dr Sharma’s staff management, including those in his direct employment. He was then asked to work with a mentor, to which he objected. The high turnover and concerns from staff resulted in a subsequent ‘ban’ on the MP by the party whip from hiring until he undertook coaching, mentoring.
The PM consistently denied his allegations of widespread bullying within the party, but Dr Sharma continued his tirade against his own party, firing his latest salvo yesterday, Monday 15 August, on social media.
In his post, he wrote:
“After 1.5 years of going through every manager, every office, knocking every door in Parliament I never got heard…the party machinery has been trying to deflect the situation by trying to dig my past and make accusations about me…I have been driven to this point because even now the party and it’s leadership refuses to believe that there is a problem.
“It’s a sad day for our democracy.”
A clear picture will emerge in the coming days how Dr Sharma will react to today’s decision.
He may continue status quo, but if Dr Sharma resigns, it would force a byelection in the Hamilton West electorate, or he can choose to continue as an independent MP, or even approach/join any one of the opposition parties. Decision is his and will be known in weeks ahead.
Dr Gaurav Sharma won the 2020 election as a Labour candidate by 6,267 votes, securing 20,703 votes against 14,436 received by sitting National MP Tim Macindoe.
Dr Sharma who is a registered General Practitioner, studied medicine at the University of Auckland. He is also a MBA from George Washington University (Washington D.C.) where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He was still young when when his family moved from Himachal Pradesh(India) to New Zealand.
– from NewsViews
