A mess for party but sympathy for Golriz

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The resignation statement from Green MP Golriz Ghahraman this week answered quite a lot of the questions that have swirled since a first allegation of shoplifting surfaced on January 10, alongside news she had stood aside from her portfolios.

She took full responsibility for her actions, apologised and offered the explanation of her mental health being badly affected from stresses related to her work — after making clear she was not trying to excuse those actions.

The Green Party co-leaders quickly followed up with their own statement supporting her decision, highlighting her political achievements over the past six years as “the leading voice in Parliament for human rights, truly independent foreign policy and electoral reform”, and saying it was clear to them she was in a state of extreme distress.

At a press conference, James Shaw said Parliament was obviously a stressful place for anybody, “but Golriz herself has been subject to pretty much continuous threats of sexual violence, physical violence and death threats, and that has added a higher level of stress”.

Marama Davidson said women with public profiles, especially women of colour, received “particular treatment” and it was “incumbent on all political parties” to support their MPs.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon added his voice yesterday by acknowledging that gendered abuse was a lot worse for women working in politics. He also said party leaders had to support their caucuses.

Luxon did not indicate if there would be any further initiatives beyond what was being done following recommendations in the 2019 Francis report into the culture of Parliament, but RNZ yesterday reported on mental health experts calling for a bipartisan effort at Parliament to increase protections for MPs and workers.

This is yet another indictment on the social media age and our more divided society, where too many people think it is OK to hurl abuse and threats. Surely we have passed peak rage and are swinging back towards more empathy and maybe even a higher dose of reality; if not, then there needs to be more policing of abuse and threats of violence.

Most people will have a lot of sympathy for Ghahraman. But for the Green Party, it would have been so much better if her statement  had come last week when the allegations first emerged. The silence that was only explained by a pre-arranged overseas holiday and details being unclear has been criticised by almost all commentators. And now there are further questions over whether the co-leaders failed to adequately support their colleague and friend.