But it is extraordinary that the Prime Minister has got herself into the position of being publicly labelled a liar by a mutinous MP on multiple media outlets.
The "story" has already gone beyond New Zealand's shores. As such it frankly does not do the Prime Minister's reputation much good at all, as it is about a lapse in political management of an issue which is both consequential (the allegations) and inconsequential (the MP making them).
Her rote responses to Sharma's allegations of caucus bullying with an "I refute ..." or an "I reject ..." have done her no favours with the public. This, coupled with her initial hand-wringing approach which carried clear innuendo about the state of the MP's mental wellbeing, has just enraged the junior politician to the point where he no longer gives a damn about the consequences to his own political career.
The Hamilton West MP was elected in Labour's 2020 landslide victory.
He is 38.
He came in on the tide and will go out the same way at the next election.
The Ardern method of shutting down matters has also spread to the lower orders of the Beehive.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty has adopted her frustrating political patois with the way in which he has responded to Sharma's claims of caucus bullying (by him).
You have to wonder whether junior ministers think this is the way into the boss' books. Why else would they parrot stereotypical responses instead of getting into the guts of the allegations against them?
Typically, no real detail has been offered by either the Prime Minister or McAnulty that would substantiate their rejection of Sharma's allegations. It's just been more of the "I refute", "I reject" prefacing of comments (or "absolutely refute" in the PM's case, punctuated with an "If I may ..." whenever some pesky interviewer zeroes in on the obvious inconsistencies in her approach to this matter).
The upshot is Ardern, in particular, is now being openly mocked on social media over the way she shuts down issues without actually putting substantive facts on the table.
This is a silly position to have arrived at and does nothing for the Prime Minister's own standing among thinking people.
Sharma will be expelled from Labour's caucus next week.
He has made a lot of claims against caucus whips. But while the clear innuendo from the Beehive suggests he is a borderline fantasist with a strong narcissistic streak, it is clear he is not alone in believing he has been hard done by.
His revelations to Newshub's Jenna Lynch — backed up by a tape of a conversation with another MP who clearly shares Sharma's view that he would have been ambushed if he had turned up to a special caucus meeting earlier in the week — do demand further examination. At the very least they underpin that he is not a total political fruitcake.
The leaked exposure by the second MP of pre-determination at Monday's private caucus meeting, from which Sharma was excluded, makes it clear natural justice was never intended.
So the enraged MP has continued to chip away with multiple accusations this week.
"This is about the credibility of a nation's Prime Minister, who every step of the way has been lying," he said on multiple radio networks this week.
He wants a public inquiry to hold people to account and claims he has been subject to a "kangaroo court in a banana republic".
The brutal truth is that the Labour Party's version of damage control also does not allow for introspection.
The pity of the affair is, the MP is going down in flames over an issue that could have been more astutely managed all round — including by him.
And it's not over an important public policy principle as with others who have stood aside from the pack like National MPs Marilyn Waring and Derek Quigley.
There are no winners in this time-wasting affair.
