Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has rejected bullying claims made by Labour MP Gaurav Sharma - and confirmed ongoing staffing issues in the backbencher's office.
Hamilton West MP Sharma, writing in an explosive column in the NZ Herald yesterday, detailed alleged bullying and gaslighting involving party whips and the Parliamentary Service.
"Parliament, like any workplace, must be free from bullying and that expectation applies to everyone, including MPs," Ardern told media in Auckland today.
Ardern told reporters Sharma's claims were disputed but she was concerned for Sharma's wellbeing.
"While we dispute the allegations that he has made, I want to ensure he knows he is a valued member of our team and I want to ensure he's getting the support he needs too."
While she hadn't spoken to Sharma in person, Ardern said she exchanged several messages with him. She also stated "members of the team" were in contact with him also.
The backbench MP's concerns "didn't reflect a wider issue", she said.
When asked if Sharma had broken any Labour rules by publicly claiming bullying, Ardern suggested the way in which his claims were raised were of some issue and would be dealt with following a resolution to the current "employment issues".
"Clearly, there are a number of issues here at play and that would be one of my primary concerns ... because it relates to other staff members, it does really raise a number of concerns."
She noted the difficult nature of managing staff and said a "constructive approach" had been taken by whips and Parliamentary Service to resolve issues, including a pause on hiring new staff.
However, the approach had not been welcome, according to Ardern.
"Managing staff can be hard so our focus with Gaurav from the start has been to take a constructive approach that we hope would set him up for the long term as an MP and place coaching and mentoring and other supports around in order to ensure that was the case."
"I was aware that ... those interventions weren't necessarily welcome."
As a result of the employment issues, Ardern said Sharma had sought an "alternative solution via the party whips and a member of her own office.
Ardern neither confirmed nor denied whether she thought Sharma was a bully.
"Look, there obviously were issues that have been raised that work has been done to try and work through, I'm not going to put a label on those issues, our job is to make sure that between PS and the whips team that we seek to resolve the issues within Gaurav's office."
Ardern confirmed she was aware at the end of last year that there were some "issues" and the next time it was raised with her was when his column was published by the Herald yesterday.
She noted the responsibility to protect staff and to make sure MPs were the best employers they could be.
On what she would say to Sharma and his constituents, she said Sharma was a valued member of the team - but the best thing to do was to "work together" to solve the issues.
Ardern said the extra scrutiny now on Sharma meant Labour would be supporting him, despite his allegations.
She would not go into the nature of the employment issues in the MP's office.
Ardern said what Sharma had raised were employment issues within his own offices and that he had sought a different solution through the whip and the member of the Prime Minister's office.
Ardern said she had "seen no evidence" of his allegations of bullying.
The employment issues needed to be dealt with appropriately and to maintain "some confidentiality".
She said starting out as an MP could be hard, along with managing staff.
Ardern confirmed a hiring pause had been put in place to address the staffing issues in the backbencher's office. She was confident Parliamentary Service and the Labour whips had done their job appropriately.
She claimed "good progress" towards resolution had been made as recent as yesterday when Sharma met with the party whip's office and Parliamentary Service.
However, that was questionable given it was understood Sharma's explosive column was published sometime after the meeting.
Ardern's comments come as Labour confirmed today there have been ongoing issues with staff in Gaurav Sharma's office, after the party's backbencher claimed there was bullying at Parliament.
Labour's chief whip Duncan Webb said today that his office had become aware of "issues between Gaurav and some of his staff" a year ago.
"At all times the Whip's office has acted in good faith and sought to work constructively with Gaurav and the Parliamentary Service to ensure he has good support available to address issues between him and his staff.
The statement said it "seemed prudent" to recently pause hiring with the intention of providing further assistance before more staff were hired into Sharma's office.
"The Parliamentary Service and I met with Gaurav in good faith to progress these issues as recently as yesterday, he was fully represented at that meeting," Webb's statement read.
"We are mindful these are ongoing relationships, so we must respect individual's privacy, but we will continue to seek a resolution with Gaurav in the coming weeks."
It's understood the meeting between Webb, Sharma and Parliamentary Service took place before the MP's column was published.
Ardern would face media about midday and will field questions on the matter.
Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero yesterday revealed they had been working through "employment matters" involving Sharma.
"The Parliamentary Service works alongside whips from all parties," he said.
"This has included working closely with the Labour Whip's office over the past year to address employment matters with Dr Sharma."
Since writing the column Sharma has refused to comment further except only to mention: "I am not the bully".
When asked who the bully or bullies were, Sharma said: "We'll find out."
Speaker Trevor Mallard said he would not discuss individual MPs or staff relationships.
"A practice was developed during the last Parliament and has continued into this Parliament where MPs who have ongoing staff relationship issues have been delayed in their appointment of new staff until the whips and Parliamentary Service are convinced they have sufficient skills to properly supervise them," he said.
Asked about cases where an MP was allegedly bullied by another MP, Mallard said he expected to soon announce a new Commissioner of Parliamentary Standards, who would investigate allegations.
He said MPs and staff could go to the commissioner if they were unsatisfied with the way a complaint had been handled.
Senior Labour ministers - namely Chris Hipkins and Willie Jackson - have said they had not seen any bullying between MPs in the party.
National MPs meanwhile were quick to leap on to discontent on the Labour backbench, taking attention away from the misdeeds of their own MP Sam Uffindell, which has dominated headlines this week.
National MP Chris Bishop described Sharma's allegations as "extraordinary".
"Dr Sharma is a very brave man to take a swing at both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, they're extraordinary allegations for the Labour Party to answer," Bishop said.
National Party Whip Chris Penk did not respond to broader criticism of party whips and only said "Labour's leadership will need to respond to these allegations about a lack of kindness".
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