In breaking news Andrew Bayly has resigned as a minister.
From the Herald:
Andrew Bayly will stand down as a government minister after an “animated discussion” with a staffer, during which he “placed a hand on their upper arm, which was inappropriate”.
“Concerns have been raised with me about a recent incident in which my behaviour towards a staff member was overbearing and for that, I am deeply sorry,” he said in a statement issued on Monday.
“As many of you know, I have been impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolios. Last week I had an animated discussion with a staff member about work. I took the discussion too far, and I placed a hand on their upper arm, which was inappropriate.
“I have apologised to the staff member and regret placing them in an uncomfortable position.
“There are times when you have to hold yourself to account and today is one of those days. I have made the personal choice to resign as a Minister and have offered my resignation to the Prime Minister, which he has accepted.
Animated discussion eh?
I guess Bayly has now answered the question he asked previously about who is the loser.
Update:
A timeline has emerged. Last Tuesday February 18 the incident apparently happened.
The Prime Minister’s Office and Ministerial Services were told about it on Wednesday evening. Thursday and Friday were spent speaking with those involved.
Bayly resigned on Friday evening.
The news gets released this morning.
Parliament is not sitting this week.
The question will be what sort of physical contact was made between Bayly and the staff member.
But not 'honourable' enough to outright resign as an MP.
Well Wikipedia says this about him
Then it goes on to say he is the MP for Port Waikato.
"everyone must go"……including coc cabinet ministers
Timing will be interesting. When did Luxon learn about this and is it after February 12 when he said to Parliament that he had faith in all of his ministers?
Some nonsense PR going on there. Was the staffer a woman? Or he's just a flat out bully?
Yep his statement makes it sound like it was very minor. Some serious minimisation must be going on here.
Hard to imaging a Minister would resign over "placed a hand on their upper arm" unless there was a whole other context.
"placed a hand on their upper arm"
Hmm at what velocity was this hand placed?
Something like this?
1.00 min. in
Hands off is always the best policy!
Ex Minister Bayly will rightly be regarded as a loser by many-but perhaps not by thousands of workers sacked by the CoC Govt. as he continues to draw a sizeable MP salary and benefits while they battle sadistic WINZ/MSD for a pittance.
Andrew "hands on" Bayly was appointed ACC Minister. After his earlier actions, surely an accident waiting to happen ?
Going to be some reshuffling…..
Seems Scott Simpson got both of Bayly's ministerial portfolios. Bayly was Minister for ACC for four weeks after the last reshuffle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bayly
Bayly's probably aren't esp big shoes to fill ? However, we could say..follow "Hands on" Bayly, and fill yer boots .
Not that he actually did much anyway apart from puffing himself up and putting other people down.
If you tell NZ citizens who have been here for decades to "go back to [wherever]" then you stay in Luxon's cabinet. No problem, says the PM.
On that scale, Bayly must have done something really bad. Or (and we can guess this is the real story) what he did was not worse than being proudly racist, but in this coalition a Nat minister can be thrown overboard, whereas a NZF minister never will be.
Yes, this whole incident smacks of double standards – or minimal standards for Natz MPs, and none at all for Coalition partners.
Bayly has just given a very brief and meaningless press conference – not even that, a couple of Qs and then walks away, after reading the same statement word-for-word that is already in the media.
Another one who "doesn't get it". Talk like a robot, say nothing … it doesn't work. Only raises more Qs.
Meanwhile, in an alternate reality, Lux sees that Bayly is real good at grabbing someone & telling them what to do. He also worries that Trump is a loose cannon. Pondering, he notices the two things come together in his mind: "Waddaya know, here's a way to tie the cannon down to the deck, I'll make Bayly our ambassador to the USA & send word to the yanks that he's a real Trump fan. When he gets his White House invite he'll grab Trump & tell him what to do."
Summary of the day:
Bayly: "I resign".
Reporters: "What happened?"
Bayly: "Not saying, that's all. Bye."
Reporters to Luxon: "What happened?"
Luxon: "What he said."
So inept it's laughable.
Another example of Luxon's leadership inability. Including; the delay in informing him of the incident (a lack of standards), the delay in making it public (a lack of any sense of accountability), and the fact that Bayly should have been sacked last October given he is clearly a loser. Then there is the fact that an assault occurred….
Remember how they all howled when Meka Whaitiri had a similar problem with a staffer?