What actually happened in the Andrew Bayly ‘incident’?

Monday, 24 February 2025

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says the Prime Minister has been “incredibly weak” in how he’s dealt with Andrew Bayly’s “incident” with a staff member.

National’s Bayly has resigned as a minister after admitting to an “incident” with a staff member - the second issue around Bayly’s conduct in five months.

Bayly announced his resignation on Monday morning as he confirmed he had to apologise to a member of his staff after what he described as an “animated discussion” that turned physical.

He described the incident as him placing his hand on someone’s upper arm, but Stuff understands it was a heated discussion about work in which Bayly grabbed the staffer’s arm.

Questioned about the incident, Bayly said it would be fair to say he “held” or “touched” their arm.

Prime Minister Chris Luxon told media the incident happened on Tuesday and he was informed on Thursday.

There were discussions with staff over Thursday and Friday and late on Friday Bayly resigned, Luxon said.

He told him to inform his family over the weekend and other impacted staff. It was announced to the public on Monday.

'I think that's been pretty quick,“ Luxon said. He said the process had been managed ”incredibly well“ and was effective and fast.

He made it clear the decision to step down was Bayly’s but that he thought it was the right thing to do.

Luxon said he got Bayly to run him through what happened, but would not give more details about what happened.

“It's good that he recognised he didn't meet his own standards.'

He said Bayly had outlined the events in his own press conference and he was not going to elaborate.

'I have nothing more to add to that.'

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said in the first instance, the fact Bayly took two days to tell the Prime Minister rang alarm bells.

And then Luxon not being upfront about the details of what actually happened and not clearly explaining the timeline “suggests they are treating the public with contempt'.

'If a minister has resigned in disgrace I think the public are entitled to know about that,' Hipkins said.

'I don't think you'd sit on that for a weekend.'

He said it was unexplainable that Luxon gave Bayly a weekend to tell his family.

'He's been incredibly weak.

'Ultimately strength of leadership would have seen him find out about this on Wednesday, and would have seen him take action within 24 hours, announce it to the public and be very upfront about that.“

As Prime Minister you want to make sure you have all the facts, Hipkins said, but in this situation all of the facts could have been established reasonably quickly.

'Allowing it to drag over the weekend is just unbelievable.

'Having a minister resign and not telling everybody for several days about it, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.'

In October, Bayly also apologised for offending a person who alleged the minister responsible for small businesses had told them to “f… off” and called them a “loser” during a business visit.

Bayly was the commerce minister and had, only last month, been appointed minister for ACC as well. He was losing both ministerial positions, but would remain a backbench MP for Port Waikato.

National MP Scott Simpson, who had been the party’s senior whip, would take over as the ACC and commerce minister.

“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,” he said in a statement.

“I have apologised to the staff member and regret placing them in an uncomfortable position,” he said.

The incident occurred on Tuesday, in Bayly’s office at Parliament, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Bayly resigned on Friday. The prime minister’s office first found out about the issue on Wednesday. It was not until Thursday that Luxon himself was told about it.

Bayly told Stuff there had been a complaint made about the incident, although he didn’t say if the staff member made the complaint.

After the prime minister’s office and Ministerial Services were alerted to the issue on Wednesday, inquiries were made on Thursday.

‘Take some wine and f… off’

The October incident saw the government release a letter from the complainant and Bayly’s apology. The complainant wrote they thought Bayly was intoxicated, which Bayly denied.

“Obviously people have different perceptions of what went on, but I don’t want to get into who said what,” Bayly said at the time.

In the letter, the worker alleges Bayly told him: “Take a bottle of wine and go home, go on, go home… take some wine and f… off.”

“What followed next was both shocking and humiliating. He called me a “loser” repeatedly, saying the reason I was still at was work was because I am a “loser”.

“He turned to the group of people with him at the time, including my boss, the minister’s assistant and marketing staff, and … employees and formed an ‘L’ with his fingers on his forehead.

“He then continued to call me a ”loser“ over and over, clearly trying to amuse the group at my expense,” they wrote.

Bayly wrote a letter apologising to the person.

“I got it wrong and I deeply regret this,” he wrote. “I am sorry”.

At the time, Luxon said he still had confidence in Bayly, but was disappointed with his conduct.