Former Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman held multiple key portfolios before resigning. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The resignation of MP Golriz Ghahraman has been described as a “huge loss” for the Green Party.
Ghahraman quit parliament yesterday in the face of multiple allegations that she had shoplifted from high-end retailers in Auckland and Wellington.
In a statement, she said that her mental health had been “badly affected” by the stress of her work as an MP.
“The mental health professional I see says my recent behaviour is consistent with recent events giving rise to extreme stress response, and relating to previously unrecognised trauma.
“People should, rightly, expect the highest standards of behaviour from their elected representatives. I fell short. I’m sorry. It’s not a behaviour I can explain because it’s not rational in any way, and after medical evaluation, I understand I’m not well.”
Speaking to The Front Page, NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan said that the expertise and advocacy Ghahraman brought to her portfolios - including foreign policy and electoral reform - will be missed by the Green Party.
“She will be a huge loss for them. She’s had a longstanding interest in foreign policy, and at the moment with the war in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, she’s pursued both of those topics quite vigorously. She’s been one of the fiercest critics of the direction the government had been pursuing on some of those issues.
“And obviously with the war in Gaza getting worse by the day, having her absent from the Greens line-up, there is a massive, massive loss for them, because they need that expertise there to really pursue that.”
Ghahraman’s resignation comes only a few months after Labour’s Kiri Allan also quit politics citing her mental health. The two incidents have sparked questions about the stresses placed on MPs, particularly women of colour, and the mental health of politicians.
Coughlan said that Parliament has introduced more support for MPs, particularly for parents, and expects them to continue to do so in the years to come, but does not expect any scenario where political parties vet potential MPs based on their mental health.
“You wouldn’t want to get to a situation where only people with quote unquote good mental health were allowed to be MPs, because that isn’t really reflective of what the country is. But then you do have to balance that against the fact that if you are not in a place where you have good mental health, that job would be an extremely difficult one for you to do.
“So the balance of allowing people the democratic right to be an MP, with also acknowledging the fact or warning people that it’s a tough gig for people who don’t have good mental health, that’s the sort of question you open up there.”
Coughlan noted that while Ghahraman had not raised concerns about her mental health previously, she had faced high levels of abuse during her time in office, including requiring extra security at points due to the level of racially-charged threats that had been made against her.
Listen to the full episode to hear more details on Golriz Ghahraman’s career highlights, the mental health support for MPs, and what this means for the Green Party.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in crime/justice reporting who joined Newstalk ZB in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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