The Indian Weekender 26 August 2022

2
EXCLUSIVE
NEW ZEALAND
Friday, August 26, 2022
Read online www.iwk.co.nz
I haven’t come this far to
VENU MENON IN
WELLINGTON
Newly independent MP
from Hamilton West, Dr
Gaurav Sharma, spoke to
the Indian Weekender following
his expulsion from the Labour
Party caucus. He discussed
the events leading up to his
removal and its aftermath. The
interview has been edited for
clarity and length. Excerpts:
This is your first day as an
independent MP in the House
and it’s very clear that your
expulsion has not resulted in
your silence. In fact, you spoke
out against outgoing Speaker
Trevor Mallard.
Look, I think the most important
thing is, why am I doing this?
I’m doing this because I am
genuinely saying that things
haven’t been done in the right
way, the processes haven’t
been followed, I have been
bullied, other MPs have also
been bullied. And there is an
issue here with how the system
is run, there’s an issue here with
how things are done. And what
I’m asking [for] is a fair trial
for myself, a fair trial for other
parties, but also hoping to help
change the system in a positive
way. And my fight isn’t with the
Labour Party, my fight is with
the system. That’s what it is.
And it so happens to be that the
Labour Party is in government
at the moment, or is part of
the system at the moment. But
that’s what my fight is, that it’s
against injustice, it’s against
the way the system is set up
and it doesn’t work. So there’s
no point in being silent or being
silenced there. And I haven’t
come this far to be silenced.
So is this going to be the trend
from now on? Are you going to
use parliamentary privilege to
speak out?
No, the intent here isn’t to just
attack anybody or anything like
that. It happened that today
the Speaker had changed and
I spoke about whatever the
matter was for the day. [I
was] just going back a little
bit as well. I guess what I
want to say is, I think people
have different opinions about
what’s happened in the last
few days. When I wrote that
article in New Zealand Herald
on Thursday, [August 11], I
genuinely thought that the
Prime Minister would come out,
[that] the Labour Party would
come out and they would say
that on Friday, when they were
going to do their press release,
that things haven’t gone
well and they will be doing an
independent investigation and
that would help everybody clear
their name. So it wasn’t [that] I
was intending this whole plan for
the past two weeks. Then what
happened is, I think the Prime
Minister said there’s no proof
that there is bullying going on
I was the one who made [the] complaints against the
staff, and not the other way round. So I [raised the] staffing
issues, [but] they didn't resolve them. And things got worse.
So my point is, even if staff are making complaints, and
not in every situation staff will be right or MP will be right.
Sometimes both will have their own views of doing things.
The point is who is investigating it? Nobody is.
in caucus, [that] everything is
all fine, which then led me to
release more information about
what happened [to] me. I had
to name people, [but] even
then, it wasn’t accepted. So
then I had to put [out] some
screenshots, obviously cutting
off people’s name[s] there,
which showed that other MPs
were also being affected by
bullying.
So the intent was [not] to
bring disrepute or whatever to
people or party. My intent was
from day one to see justice
[is done]. And that’s why I
just wrote an opinion piece.
And there’s nothing wrong
with writing an opinion piece
and it was an opinion piece
about how the system wasn’t
working. Unfortunately, the
reply to that wasn’t that let’s
have a look at [an] independent
[investigation], look at the
system and see if it can be
changed. Does it need to be
changed? Have things gone
wrong? Which is the right
way to do it? An independent
investigation, we [will] look into
it. What happened was that
they were trying to silence me
and blocked me from speaking
and then saying that there
isn’t an issue. That’s when I
had to release the screenshots.
Right then we ended up at a
point where I was told that
there would be an independent
[investigation], [that there]
would be a fair caucus meeting,
[that] I was able to present my
side of the case.
But then it turns out there
was a secret meeting the night
before, and I was made aware
of it by somebody else [and
a] senior as well. And then
somebody said, well, that’s
not true. There was no secret
meeting. We didn’t really discuss
these issues. Well, then there
was an audio tape available as
well, where somebody for 55
minutes went on to use the
word “predetermined” many
times, but also talked about
how the prime minister didn’t
want an investigation. All of
that was predetermined. I
guess what I’m trying to say
is, first of all, at every step
of the way, it hasn’t been like
I’ve planned it. So coming to
your question, it’s not that I’m
trying to use or will be using
the parliamentary questions
just to do this. I do want to get
on with doing the work as well.
But it just happened to be the
situation that you’re in.
Your Op-ed piece was the
trigger. It goes to the heart
of the problem. It proved that
you opted for media over
mediation. So in hindsight, do
you think that was politically
naive? Did you expect the
Labour party to get up and
order an investigation?
So to answer your question,
first thing is it’s not something
that happened over one-anda-half
weeks or two months or
three months. It’s been going
on for one-and-a-half years.
And for one-and-a-half years,
I’ve tried every office. I’ve tried
talking [to] the relationship
manager, their boss, their
boss’s boss, the deputy CEO
of Parliamentary Services,
the CEO of Parliamentary
Services. I’ve talked to multiple
whips, I’ve talked to the Prime
Minister’s office. Even when
they didn’t come forth after
our oral conversation, I even
wrote an email to them. So it’s
not something that happened
because I didn’t try all the
avenues. It happened because
I tried all the avenues and
nothing worked.
I was already at the highest
office in the country, which is
the Prime Minister’s office. In
December, I provided them all
the evidence and talked to them
and raised my concerns, and
nothing happened. And then,
this person who they should
have looked at, because other
MPs were getting affected by
it, that person ends up getting
promoted. So there was no
Kieran McAnulty
I'm quite active
and will continue to
be active because
I'm still the Member
of Parliament for
Hamilton West. So
my intention is to
continue to work
hard and lobby for
my constituents.
actual genuine concern for
other people’s wellbeing, other
MPs’ wellbeing as well. So going
back to your point, it wasn’t
that I was naive or didn’t try
all the avenues. I went through
every single step of the system
before I got there.
I also want to say, the only
time mediation was offered was
after I was suspended. It was
only after I was suspended that
they sent me a text message
saying we are happy to do a
mediation.
I also want to say that you
can’t say that I have had staffing
issues for one-and-a-half years,
as they said it, then I would
take a lawyer into a meeting
and they said there were
never any issues and we will
give you all the staffing rights
and everything, and within 30
minutes, somebody has texted
you from Parliamentary services
and said, it’s all good. The point
of difference then was, well,
you still need to investigate
the claims I have made, where
I’ve said that the staff were
drunk, they didn’t show up to
work. There were lots of other
issues where constituents had
raised issues, organisations
had raised issues. So there
were lots of things going on.
They didn’t want to investigate
them. All they wanted was to
put it under the rug again and
for me to move on. But is it not
odd to you that for one-and-a-