One of the Green Party's longest-serving MPs has called the past couple of weeks "disastrous" for his former party's brand after its seventh-ranked MP, Golriz Ghahraman, resigned yesterday, facing multiple shoplifting allegations.

Ghahraman's resignation was the result of a 16-day saga where news came to light of the MP shoplifting from high-end stores in Auckland and Wellington.

Two allegations related to Scottie's Boutique in Ponsonby and a third, at Wellington's Cre8iveworx, came to light the day before her resignation.

Ghahraman said the stresses of her job had severely affected her mental health and caused her to act in ways that were "completely out of character".

Former Green MP Gareth Hughes told Summer Breakfast this morning he was “not sure” the party’s reputation will recover.

“This would have been disastrous in the weeks leading up to the [election] campaign; they might be hoping [because] parliament hasn't begun the year yet that they can start afresh," said Hughes.

"[Ghahraman] has drawn a line under it - she's apologised and taken responsibility, ultimately faced a very consequential consequence by resigning from parliament. I'm sure they'll be wanting to get back to talking on the issues they're talking about."

During a press conference immediately following the resignation, party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson revealed Ghahraman had faced a heavy onslaught of sexual and death threats from the moment she entered parliament.

They said they felt a large amount of empathy for what Ghahraman had experienced.

Hughes agreed it was a sad end to a political career in which Ghahraman became "a high-profile champion" on the issues she was outspoken on, such as human rights and the Gaza-Israel conflict.

"I was a politician at the same time as her, I got a little bit of abuse but I think it's important to reflect, I was a white guy in Parliament and I didn't get a fraction of one per cent of the abuse that she got from day one," he said.

"It was frankly horrific reading the messages that people would send her; really horrific stuff. It's a hard job at the best of times but for women, especially women of colour, it's double as hard."

Parliamentary services are aware of abuse when MPs receive it, Hughes said, particularly threats considered more graphic.

He believed parliament members have access to reasonable support mechanisms, but the balance came with the need for MPs to play their part in a democracy where politicians are available to the public.

"I'm aware of several female MP's currently in parliament who literally can't open their email inbox without someone going through it first, because of the abusive messages they receive," he said.

"It seems to be a systemic problem, a cultural problem in this country and I hate the idea women might not want to stand in parliament to avoid the threats and abuse they might receive as par for the course."

Commenting on the way the Green Party handled the allegations as they came to light, Hughes said he couldn't explain the silence from his former party, but as an independent commenting on the matter, he said it was clear all the information wasn't being provided.

Hughes believed it's important to "over-communicate" in a crisis to make sure the public is fully aware of what is going on.

"That was really difficult in this circumstance because the allegations [surfaced] over that Christmas-New Year period. Ghahraman was overseas and clearly not communicating everything she was aware of," said Hughes.

However, Hughes said, the fact was the party was slow to communicate what was happening.

"Ideally from a political management perspective they would have dealt with this internally before it came out in the media, the fact all these stories and videos were leaked out over time just makes the story worse."

Asked what was next for Ghahraman, Hughes said there was evidence of other MP's leaving their roles in similar circumstances who managed to rebuild their careers. "I just hope she gets all the support and love she needs to get through," he said.

"I think she has made the right decision; parliament is a very tough pressure-cooker environment in the best of times, not the best place to be working on your personal wellbeing and mental health."