Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says "there will from time-to-time be disagreements" in Parliament amid Labour MP Gaurav Sharma's allegations of bullying.
On Thursday the first-term MP for Hamilton West launched a broadside against what he alleged was a bullying and gaslighting culture within Parliament - involving party whips.
On Friday the backbencher published a 2600-word Facebook post detailing more grievances and other allegations about his time in Parliament. The Labour Party has repeatedly disputed and rejected the allegations levelled by Sharma.
Meanwhile, one anonymous ex-staffer on Friday made an allegation that there had been a bullying culture in the MPs office, according to the NZ Herald.
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The Herald said Sharma did not address the accuracy of specific allegations when given a right of reply, but that "he had refused to extend the contract of one of his former staffers because he was unhappy with their work" and that complaints had been filed about the staffer with Parliamentary Services.
Ardern told Breakfast on Monday three years on from Debbie Francis' review into bullying and harassment in the parliamentary workplace, "there will from time-to-time be disagreements".
"There is no question that is an issue that over successive years this place has had to work on," she said when asked if she was confident Parliament is a good environment and whether staff feel comfortable raising concerns.
"It's why we had the Francis review ... so it is definitely vastly better than when I first came in, for instance, over 10 years ago.
"But will there be issues here still? Absolutely and Guarav is an example of where those issues have been raised and we've tried very hard to work them through," Ardern said.
"But there are roughly, as I say, 230 staff employed across our MPs. There will from time-to-time be disagreements. It's all about the way we work those through and making sure we're doing that to the best of our ability."
Addressing Sharma's bullying allegations, Ardern said they stemmed from him disagreeing with attempts to improve the management of his office.
The prime minister said Sharma had not raised his staffing issues with her directly and she had learned of them from the Herald.
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"I have gone back through and looked at what has occurred here and it's clear to me that a number of interventions were made because of multiple issues raised by staff and he hasn't always agreed with those, but I do not believe that constructive interventions and attempts to improve the management of his office, which he disagreed with, constitutes bullying."
Delegates and members of the Hamilton West Labour Party signed a letter on Saturday to the party's caucus stating Sharma "continues to have our full and unconditional support".
They said given the "serious concerns" he has raised they hope there will be an independent inquiry into them in order to "give him a fair trial that he deserves".
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