August 17, 2022
No easy ride as Sharma banished
Former Labour and New Zealand First MP Shane Jones say Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma doesn’t seem to understand how parliament works.
Dr Sharma was yesterday suspended from caucus after what Prime Minister Jacinda Arden described as “repeated breaches of trust”, with his path back depending on the results of a review and mediation.
The first term MP last week published a newspaper article and social media posts claiming there was rampant bullying in parliament.
Ms Ardern says multiple staff had made complaints about his management, but Dr Sharma refused offers of coaching, mentoring and temporary staff.
Mr Jones says Dr Sharma is highly educated, but taking on the party because of a sense of frustration or entitlement doesn’t work.
“When you spend nine years as some of the Labour people have in Opposition, those are nine long miserable years. Miserable in that you can’t implement the policies you have fought for and you’ve got to chip away at the regime that holds power. So anyone who comes in and expects to have an easy ride, they should never have gone in to politics,” he says.
Mr Jones says Gaurav Sharma represents a bellwether seat, and he needs to remember the word originally referred to a castrated ram.