Kerre Woodham: MP bullying dramas highlight an attitude shift is needed in Parliament

I've been watching with fascination as Dr Gaurav Sharma blows up his political career. I think it's fair to say that Sharma’s career is pretty much over.

He feels betrayed, disillusioned, and let down and it's probably fair to say his Labour caucus colleagues feel much the same.

They see a politician gone rogue, airing dirty laundry in public, telling all the secrets. He sees a broken system that supports and protects bullies and the party, at the expense of the public.

As former United Party leader Peter Dunne said this morning, there's probably a bit of truth in both positions.

As he says, both the Uffindell and Sharma affairs show that there's fault on both sides when it comes to the selection and preparation of new MPs under Parliament.

I was looking at the meet our new MP's video that was on the Labour Party website, these were the 23 new MPs that were elected in the landslide in 2020.

They all came from careers of service or business or a lot of lawyers. Doctor Sharma was there looking newly minted and squeaky clean as all the others did. They all looked so excited about being there. They all looked like this was the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.

And they probably aren't prepared for the reality of Parliament.

For the hierarchical nature of it, for the fact that there are staff there that have seen 1000 of you come and go, and they're not that terribly impressed by you. And when you go, there will be another one to take your place.  

Probably a lot more could be done to prepare wannabe politicians for a life in the fish bowl that is Parliament. It is a very odd place. You know, having been around the periphery of Parliament for some years, it's like a vacuum.

It sucks in you and you believe that everything that happens there is the only thing that matters.

On balance, National, I think, has handled their scandal better than Labour has handled theirs. You do really have to wonder about the culture of the place.  

There have been attempts to work out what needs to be fixed in Parliament.

But when you have the biggest bully boy of all being rewarded with a sinecure in Dublin and when loyalty above all … above ability, above efficiency, above common decency is what matters the most within the Labour Party, you realise that it's going to take a seismic shift in attitude to bring about any change at all.

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