New Zealand’s commerce and consumer affairs minister has resigned after putting his hand on a staff member’s arm during what he described as an “animated discussion”.
Andrew Bayly said his action was “inappropriate” and apologised for his “overbearing” behaviour.
"I am deeply sorry,” he said in a statement. “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.”
Mr Bayly gave his resignation to prime minister Christopher Luxon on Friday but released the statement only on Monday.
In a short press conference that lasted just five minutes, Mr Bayly said he had a “lively” discussion with the staffer but denied touching their “upper arm” with force. "I've never had anything like this happen before,” he added.
The resignation came after a complaint was lodged about his behaviour last week. Mr Bayly said they “went through a process of understanding the nature of the complaint” and he then made the decision to step down.
"To be honest I would have had difficulty doing this interview over the last couple of days. I've had to talk to my family, and that's why I've made the decision and that's why we're announcing it today,” he said. "I have taken personal responsibility for what has taken place."
This was Mr Bayly’s second apology over his ministerial conduct since October. He had previously apologised for calling a worker a loser during a site visit. The worker had complained that the minister appeared drunk, swore and formed an “L” sign with his fingers while calling him a loser.
At the time Mr Bayly replied with two apologies and said he “misread the moment”. He claimed the comments were made in a “lighthearted manner” and denied he was intoxicated.
Accepting Mr Bayly’s resignation, the prime minister thanked him for the hard work he had put into his ministerial portfolios. Mr Luxon said the latest incident involving Mr Bayly occurred on 18 February.
"What was important though was he identified his interaction with a staff member as having fallen short of his own expectations and he proactively came to me and offered his resignation which I accepted and I think is the right thing to do,” the prime minister said.
He said the incident had been managed "incredibly well".
Labour leader Chris Hipkins, however, said the prime minister should have acted sooner.
"Christopher Luxon has once again set the bar for ministerial behaviour so low, that it would be almost impossible to get over it," he said.
"In this case, we now got ministers sacking themselves when the prime minister should have shown leadership and done that months ago."
