Alleged Bully of the Day

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has distanced himself from former Labour MP Marja Lubeck after she posted to X, formerly Twitter, attacking the victims of alleged bullying by Labour MP Shanan Halbert.

Last night, former staff told Newshub Halbert was a bully, and that he was “manipulative”, “scheming”, and “a narcissist”.

This morning, Lubeck, who was a member of Labour’s caucus in the most recent term of Parliament but has now retired posted: “How about some fairness, some integrity. Accusations about an MP by anonymous accusers especially in an election campaign should not be used like that. It’s wrong. Just Stop”.

Lubeck did not respond to the Herald’s request to comment. The post has since been deleted.

The post suggested the accusers had partisan motivations and cut against Hipkins’ plea yesterday that accusers, should they wish, come forward and use the new process Parliament has enabled to deal with bullying.

“I don’t agree with that sentiment,” Hipkins said of the post.

“Parliament needs to take these kinds of complaints seriously, I certainly do, and so that is not my view. My view is that if people have concerns they can raise them anonymously and there is a mechanism through which they can do that.”

NZ Herald

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