David Bridges
Labour MP Gaurav Sharma leaving after being expelled from caucus. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
A former staff member of exiled MP Gaurav Sharma said he needs to move on with his life and not post lengthy social media essays about the alleged poor performance of his former staff.
Sharma posted a 4700-word post about what he alleged was poor performance of his former staff and the way his complaints were handled by Parliamentary Service and the Labour Party.
One former staff member speaking to the Herald anonymously urged Sharma to move on.
“Stop dragging this out,” they said.
“This is a breach of our confidentiality. It’s bringing up past trauma – we’ve already lived it once,” they said.
The staffer had previously spoken to the Herald about how Parliamentary Service, the employer of staff who work at Parliament and in electorates, had to arrange counselling for them after working with Sharma had made them feel depressed and want to self-harm.
They were staggered that Sharma, knowing this, would seek to relitigate their employment in public.
The staffer said that all of the former staff Sharma had fallen out with had kept confidentiality and tried to move on.
The episode only hit the public domain when Sharma decided to go public with his own claims of bullying. The staffer said they had done the right thing by Sharma, but he had not done the right thing by them.
“We’re all moving on – we kept our end of the bargain and didn’t say anything about it,” they said.
“Him bringing it up again is triggering me,” they said.
They alleged that Sharma had been viewing their social media after they left his employment.
“I kept him on my social media.
“I kept him on there because I wanted him to see that I was moving on with my life.
On some platforms, it is possible to see whether someone has viewed a “story”.
The staffer alleges that Sharma watched their stories after they had fallen out, after never previously taken an interest in their social media.
Sharma denied he had been watching former staff’s social media.
“If it’s a story then I am sure you will know that if people have been Facebook or Instagram friends for a long time then the stories automatically roll over from one to another. You don’t have to go and find anyone’s story. I haven’t followed any staff accounts. If they have always been my social media friend their post may show up but I have no interest,” Sharma said.
Sharma said he was “social media friends with four other staff who finished their contracts on good terms”.
The staff member urged Sharma to apologise to his former staff and move on.
“I tried to move on with him. He needs to move on. The Labour party is moving on. He’s getting irrelevant.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. I don’t know why he wants to drag this on,” they said.
The staff member is themselves trying to move on and was meant to be on a date when the Herald informed them of the Facebook post which went up on Monday evening.
“I’m trying to live my best life.
“There’s more important things happening in the world,” they said.
In the lengthy Facebook post, Sharma alleges he raised 66 specific issues about one staffer with their official employer, Parliamentary Service.
Most of the allegations relate to what Sharma alleges is that person being poor at their job.
Sharma repeated his allegation that Parliamentary Service had not responded appropriately when Sharma raised issues about a staff member flying to an MP’s event. Sharma initially alleged this was a misuse of taxpayer funds. Parliamentary Service contended it was not.
On Tuesday, he was expelled from the Labour Party. He now sits as an independent MP.
Maya Kensington
