"Employment matters" are being worked through with a Labour backbencher MP who made explosive claims about bullying and gaslighting involving party whips and the Parliamentary Service.
Senior Labour ministers have also said they had not seen any bullying between MPs in the party.
Dr Sharma took aim at the Parliamentary Service, the party whips’ offices and leaders, saying bullying was "rampant."
It remains unclear exactly what prompted Dr Sharma’s complaints.
Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said yesterday the Parliamentary Service had been working through "employment matters" around Dr Sharma.
"The Parliamentary Service works alongside whips from all parties," he said.
"This has included working closely with the Labour whip’s office over the past year to address employment matters with Dr Sharma.
"It is also important to make it clear that the service cannot direct MPs what to do and how to act."
Speaker Trevor Mallard said he would not discuss individual MPs or staff relationships.
"A practice was developed during the last Parliament and has continued into this Parliament where MPs who have ongoing staff relationship issues have been delayed in their appointment of new staff until the whips and Parliamentary Service are convinced they have sufficient skills to properly supervise them," he said.
Dr Sharma has refused to comment further except to say: "I am not the bully."
When asked who the bully or bullies were, Dr Sharma said: "We’ll find out."
Asked about cases where an MP was allegedly bullied by another MP, Mr Mallard said he expected to announce a new commissioner of parliamentary standards soon, who would investigate allegations.
He said MPs and staff could go to the commissioner if they were dissatisfied with the way a complaint had been handled.
National MPs were quick to leap on to discontent on the Labour backbench, taking attention away from the misdeeds of their own MP Sam Uffindell that dominated headlines this week.
National MP Chris Bishop described Dr Sharma’s allegations as "extraordinary".
"Dr Sharma is a very brave man to take a swing at both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister.
"They’re extraordinary allegations for the Labour Party to answer," Mr Bishop said.
"He talks specifically about the Prime Minister’s office and the whip’s office of the Labour Party in his article.
"He’s clearly had a very tough time here and it’s very brave of him to speak out," he said.
National Party whip Chris Penk did not respond to broader criticism of party whips and said only "Labour’s leadership will need to respond to these allegations about a lack of kindness."
Labour MPs so far have not supported the claims by Dr Sharma, a first-term MP.
The Francis review into the Parliamentary workplace was done by Debbie Francis in 2019 and found bullying and harassment was systemic and there was low accountability for bad behaviour — especially for MPs.
Changes since then include a code of conduct and attempts to address MPs who have repeated issues with staff. — The New Zealand Herald
By Adam Pearce
