NZ minister resigns for placing hand on staff’s arm

New Zealand’s commerce minister Andrew Bayly has resigned after he “placed a hand” on a staff member’s upper arm last week, in what he described as “overbearing” behaviour.

Bayly said on Monday that he was “deeply sorry” about the incident, which he described as not an argument but an “animated discussion”.

While Bayly has left his ministerial posts, he remains a member of parliament.

His resignation on Monday comes after he was criticised last October for calling a winery worker a “loser”- including putting his fingers in an ‘L’ shape on his forehead – and allegedly using an expletive directed at them.

“As many of you know, I have been impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolios,” Bayly said in a statement.

“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.”

Bayly resigned last Friday, said New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, adding that the incident happened last Tuesday.

Luxon said the government’s handling the issue within a week was “pretty quick” and “pretty impressive”.

However, Labour leader Chris Hipkins criticised Luxon as “incredibly weak” over his handling of the issue, saying that it should not have been dragged over the weekend.

“Christopher Luxon has once again set the bar for ministerial behaviour so low, that it would be almost impossible to get over it,” he told reporters on Monday.

Bayly himself said that he had to talk to his family and “would have had difficulty” speaking to the media earlier.

Bayly was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 2014. Before joining politics, Bayly worked in the finance industry.

Bayly is the first minister to resign of his own accord under PM Luxon, whose favourability has dipped to a record low, according to a poll. The 1News-Verian poll also showed his National-led coalition government is losing support among voters.

The government has recently come under fire for some policies that were seen by some as anti-Māori, including the introduction of a bill that many argued undermined Māori rights and the dissolution of the Māori Health Authority – which was set up under the last Labour government to try and create greater health equality.

Scott Simpson, the ruling National Party’s senior whip, will be taking over Bayly as the Minister for ACC – the national accidental injury compensation scheme – and the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.