Labour MP Dr Gaurav Sharma has reiterated his claims of bullying within Parliament, now claiming he complained to the Prime Minister's chief of staff in December last year.
In a social media post this afternoon, uploaded while Jacinda Ardern was speaking to media in Wellington, the Hamilton West MP purported to provide screenshots of messages from other MPs who he claims had also been bullied.
Sharma also alleged some MPs had asked him how to fake a Covid test to avoid coming to Parliament due to workplace bullying.
Ardern, during today's post-Cabinet press conference, said she had not seen any evidence that would substantiate Sharma's bullying claims against Labour's former chief whip and MP Kieran McAnulty.
"I can see that there has been a disagreement but I haven't seen evidence that suggests or substantiates those allegations," Ardern said.
Sharma first alleged "rampant" bullying within Parliament, including between MPs, in a Herald opinion piece published late last week.
Ardern told RNZ this morning Sharma's allegations did not warrant an independent inquiry, as he had called for.
Sharma later told the Herald that was "unfortunate" and that he felt everybody should "have an opportunity to clear their name".
A former staffer to Sharma also spoke to the Herald last week about an alleged culture of bullying that existed in his office, which they claim was so bad it forced them into needing counselling.
In 2019, Debbie Francis conducted a review into the Parliamentary workplace and found bullying and harassment was systemic and there was low accountability for bad behaviour - especially for MPs.
In his Facebook post at 3pm today, Sharma claimed he had provided screenshots of messages from MPs who were being bullied to the Prime Minister's chief of staff in December last year.
He said he made a complaint about bullying by McAnulty, the MP for Wairarapa.
Sharma attached some of the messages to his social media post, however, it was absent of dates.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discussed allegations of bullying at Monday's post-Cabinet media conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell
One of the messages said: "I fear I will have serious mental health issues staying here bro."
"I feel like I'm being poisoned," one message read.
In the post, Sharma said one of the messages was from an MP who "spent almost three hours in tears talking about how they were being treated".
"Others asked me how to fake a Covid test so they didn't have to come to Parliament because of how much they were scared of being bullied.
"I specifically flagged to the chief of staff in our meeting that there were many members of caucus in this situation and I was worried about their mental health as well as lack of any support or due process. I specifically said that this needed to be investigated but nothing was done at all."
Sharma went on to say in his post that after his column alleging bullying last week he was told not to talk to the media and instead raise issues with the party whips or leader.
"But that's exactly what I have tried to do for last 1.5 years without being heard at all," Sharma wrote.
"And now I am being silenced again; as such the bullying continues."
Ardern said today this was a matter for caucus, which would convene this week, to resolve.
"We have always been concerned about ensuring that the wellbeing of our MPs sits first and foremost.
"We look to try and seek resolution to these issues this week in order to give a pathway forward but front and centre will always be the wellbeing of our staff but also the wellbeing of our MPs."
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