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Speaker 1: Well, obviously, Andrew Bailey I gave up his ministerial portfolios

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Speaker 1: for an instant with the staffer. He announced it yesterday.

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Speaker 1: He in fact resigned to the Prime minister on Friday.

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Speaker 1: He apparently put his hand on the staffer's upper arm

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Speaker 1: during what he called an animated discussion. But he's refusing

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Speaker 1: to go into any detail about that discussion. He says

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Speaker 1: he's apologized, but it's not the first time his conduct

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Speaker 1: has been questioned. Political commentator bridget to Morton is with

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Speaker 1: me now, Hello, bridget good morning. So he slowly lost

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Speaker 1: it in the public eye. Really, he'd already done, he'd

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Speaker 1: already had the Loser controversy. This was the second one,

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Speaker 1: and he just realized that time was running out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's very clear that when you're

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Speaker 2: in an employer employee relationship like he was, that this

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Speaker 2: kind of behavior is inappropriate. He recognized that, the Prime

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Speaker 2: Minister recognized that he wasn't really any other way he

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Speaker 2: could go.

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Speaker 1: He's gone to the back benches. He hasn't gone completely.

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Speaker 1: Should he have gone completely? And if he has gone

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Speaker 1: to the back benches, is there any way he can

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Speaker 1: come back up?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think you never say never when it comes

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Speaker 2: to this, but I think it's a difficult road. There's

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Speaker 2: a lot of talented people on that back bench that

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Speaker 2: are all waiting to be a ministerial slot as well,

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Speaker 2: so it's going to be difficult for him to come

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Speaker 2: back into the cabinet.

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Speaker 1: Okay, should he run for MP again or do you

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Speaker 1: think the electorate might have might have moved against him?

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Speaker 2: So, I mean, he's got a very popular electorate. He's

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Speaker 2: always had a really strong result there, which seems to

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Speaker 2: indicate at least that there is some you know, you know,

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Speaker 2: respect for him within the electorate. I think the election

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Speaker 2: is still a little bit way off, but it would

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Speaker 2: come down to whether or not that's what he wants

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Speaker 2: to do with his.

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Speaker 1: Career going forward. Okay, Now, look, you mentioned there's plenty

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Speaker 1: of other back benches who want to step up into

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Speaker 1: cabinet positions, but there are other political editors have written

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Speaker 1: that the problem with the National Party, after being hollowed

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Speaker 1: out by the Labor Party in the previous election, they've

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Speaker 1: got an awful lot of first terms. Even our Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister is a first termer. So here's the question, is

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Speaker 1: National running out of experienced politicians who've been in cabinet seats,

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Speaker 1: who have been in responsible positions.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean Scott's Simson who stepped into Andrew Bailey's

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Speaker 2: shoes here has you know, he's been around a long time.

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Speaker 2: He's a very experienced of Leitch of MP, has previously

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Speaker 2: been a minister in the former government. So I think

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Speaker 2: that's an indication that there is some of that talent

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Speaker 2: on the backbench. Also, as many of us know that

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Speaker 2: being in parliament itself is not necessarily the only experience

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Speaker 2: you want for somebody going into a bigger minister sometimes

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Speaker 2: having those connections into the business world or health or

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Speaker 2: education a great criteria as well.

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Speaker 1: Meanwhile, people are calling Chris Hipkins a hypocrite. Do you

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Speaker 1: reckon he was in terms of calling.

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Speaker 2: That this wasn't dealt with cleanly. Yeah, I think he

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Speaker 2: has been a bit of a hypocrite here. We've just

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Speaker 2: got to look at the Michael Woods scandal. You know,

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Speaker 2: it took like three weeks, he was given personal leave.

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Speaker 2: You know, he's given multiple warnings. It's just not true

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Speaker 2: that Happkins would say that, you know, his ministers would

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Speaker 2: been gold within a couple of hours.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and therefore did Christopher like to make the wrong

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Speaker 1: move by allowing Bailey to have a weekend, you know,

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Speaker 1: to resign on Friday, have a weekend to pull himself

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Speaker 1: together and then announce it to the public. That's been

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Speaker 1: size as well. This has formed a hole that Chris

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Speaker 1: Dickins has gone for even if the years hypocritical. So

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Speaker 1: was that a mistake by Christopher Luxon not to announce

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Speaker 1: this all on Friday?

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean a it is a weekend.

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Speaker 2: It's the portfolio is a commerce and consumer affears. They're

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Speaker 2: not something in which he was going to be a

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Speaker 2: major disaster of the week. We're not talking about how

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Speaker 2: or civil defense for any of those kind of portfolios.

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Speaker 2: Also just going to remember sometimes that politicians are people too,

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Speaker 2: and be able to give his time to tell his

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Speaker 2: family and also the staff, because remember all those staff

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Speaker 2: in his office have now actually lost their positions and

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Speaker 2: have to reapply or make decision about what they do next.

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Speaker 2: I think it's fears to actually end out sort of

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Speaker 2: that to happen before the media start, you know, having

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Speaker 2: their time to go through all of the questions.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually maybe I'm maybe I'm an outlier. I

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Speaker 1: actually thought it was handled pretty well and with decency

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Speaker 1: to all players.

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Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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Speaker 2: to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays, or

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