Two yellow cards

First-term Labour MP for Hamilton West Gaurav Sharma suspended from Labour caucus by all other Labour MPs in his absence; He joins National first-term MP Sam Uffindell in the bin; Craic galore

Aug 16, 2022

TLDR: Labour’s caucus unanimously decided this afternoon to suspend first-term Hamilton West MP Gaurav Sharma after he took his allegations of workplace bullying to the media rather than keep them in-house. Labour has alleged Sharma faces similar allegations from people who worked for him in his own office.

Sharma will now join just-elected National MP for Tauranga Sam Uffindell in being suspended from their respective caucuses. RNZ

So what? - Both parties will wish they had better candidate selection processes. Neither party and neither party leaders will be happy with the optics of their respectively recalcitrant MPs having their career implosions in public. By-elections now appear possible for both electorates, with a potential Labour loss in the marginal Hamilton West electorate more dangerous for Jacinda Ardern than an expensive but-still-National-held byelection in Tauranga is for Christopher Luxon.

The bottom line - The tit-for-tat yellow cards are something of a wash, unless a by-election in Hamilton West creates an opportunity for a morale-boosting win for National, or even a wild card independent. Winston Peters used a by-election in the National-held electorate of Northland in 2015 to reinvigorate NZ First and lift it back into Parliament in 2017, although Peters lost Northland at the 2017 election.

Elsewhere in Aotearoa-NZ today

NIWA Weather @NiwaWeather

⚠️ A long-lived atmospheric river (AR) will make landfall in the South Island on Tuesday, intensify Wednesday-Thursday & last into the weekend. This will lead to flooding, slips & washouts with well over a month's worth of rain, especially in the northern & western South Island.

Just briefly

85,000 out of 215,000 applicants granted residency so far under Covid scheme Beehive

Population growth of 0.2% in year to June 30 slowest growth since 1986 Statistics NZ

In geo-politics, the global economy, business and markets

He did what!?! - Australian PM Anthony Albanese said this afternoon Scott Morrison swore himself into five other ministerial positions while PM, which he described as an “unprecedented trashing of our democracy by the former Morrison government."

Fellow Liberal MPs and fellow former ministers called on Morrison to resign from Parliament as an MP. ABC Australia

"I used to say that Scott Morrison had two jobs as Prime Minister and he botched them both. It turns out I was wrong about there being just two jobs." Anthony Albanese