Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

I can’t work out if this Sharma stuff is something voters care about or not. It’s a lot of he said / she said. It’s a lot of claim and counter claim – it’s something we may never really get to the bottom of given Labour ruled out an independent investigation. That in and of itself may tell us something actually. The way it’s been handled by the party – a clearly furious Ardern and Robertson, shows that for all the talk of kindness and kumbaya, they couldn’t have been less kind in the way they’ve dealt with all this. So Sharma’s been suspended, which really solves nothing. On top of that, and even worse in my view, is that we learn yesterday that prior to yesterday’s Zoom caucus meeting, they’d already had another secret meeting the night before. Worse yet, when Sharma leaked that info to the media, the Prime Minister’s office disputed it. Didn’t outright deny it, but disputed it. The PM was eventually forced to confirm it after Sharma provided proof of it, with a shot someone inside the caucus had sent him, o