Gaurav Sharma (politician)

Elected in 2020, Sharma was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party, representing the electorate of Hamilton West.

In December, Sharma contested and lost the 2022 Hamilton West by-election to National MP Tama Potaka.

In 2005, The New Zealand Herald named him as one of the top six students in the country as per Sir John Graham's NZ Education and Scholarship Trust.

Volunteer work as a caregiver in a rest home when he was in high school inspired Sharma to pursue a career in medicine.

[7] Sharma has been registered with the Medical Council of New Zealand under a general scope requiring he practise under supervision in the GPEP training programme.

[17] On 11 August 2022, Sharma wrote an opinion piece for The New Zealand Herald newspaper in which he alleged widespread bullying within Parliament.

[21] Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero disputed Sharma's allegations and defended his organisation's work on countering bullying within parliament.

[22] Labour Party MPs, including Damien O'Connor, Chris Hipkins, and Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki, questioned Sharma's claims.

[24] On 19 August, Newshub reported that the Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier had sent a letter to Ardern querying Sharma's allegations that Labour MPs had been trained to circumvent the Official Information Act 1982.

[30] On 15 August, Ardern confirmed that the Labour Party parliamentary caucus would be holding a special meeting that week to discuss Sharma's bullying allegations.

Sharma found out about this meeting after "accidentally" receiving a message with a photo of fellow Labour MP Kelvin Davis on Zoom call.

Ardern also claimed that Sharma had rejected the party's offers of coaching, mentoring and temporary staff over the past 18 months.

In return, Sharma had accused the Labour leadership of ignoring his concerns, gaslighting him, and creating a cover-up culture.

She added that the caucus had also voted to refer the matter to the New Zealand Council of the Labour Party for them to consider any further disciplinary action.

[40] On 20 October 2022, the New Zealand Council, Labour's governing body, expelled Sharma from the party with immediate effect.

[41] On 18 October 2022, Sharma announced on his Facebook page that he had resigned from Parliament, and that he would contest the by-election for Hamilton West that would result from this.

[42] Sharma claimed that Labour planned to use the waka-jumping legislation to force him out of Parliament six months before the 2023 New Zealand general election, and that this would mean a by-election could be avoided.