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Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be

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Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcast now on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Andrew Bailey has resigned from cabinet.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, handy having me up here for these sorts of things. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: we we started to get word at about eleven thirty

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Speaker 2: this morning that there was something bubbling away in Parliament

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Speaker 2: and the Prime Minister was set to make an announcement.

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Speaker 2: He is speaking to media at three thirty today, but

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Speaker 2: we got word something was happening, which meant that he's

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Speaker 2: going to have to speak a little bit sooner. And

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Speaker 2: then quickly after that we got a statement from Andrew Bailey.

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Speaker 2: Now I'm going to read it out to you. This

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Speaker 2: comes from Andrew Bailey's office. Now Andrew Bailey is at

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Speaker 2: this stage, he's the Minister what he was the Minister

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Speaker 2: for acc and Consumer Affairs. Concerns have been raised with

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Speaker 2: me about a recent incident in which my behavior towards

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Speaker 2: a staff member was overbearing, and for that I am

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Speaker 2: deeply sorry. As many of you know, I have been

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Speaker 2: impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolio. Last week

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Speaker 2: I had an animated discussion with a staff member about

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Speaker 2: work I took the discussion too far and I placed

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Speaker 2: a hand on their upper arm, which was inappropriate. I

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Speaker 2: have apologized to the staff member and regret placing them

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Speaker 2: in an uncomfortable position. And then in the statement it

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Speaker 2: goes on to say that he has offered his resignation

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Speaker 2: to the Prime Minister of being a minister and the

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister has accepted that, which means that he's going

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Speaker 2: to stick around as a Member of Parliament for the

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Speaker 2: Port Waikato and it means there's going to be no

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Speaker 2: by election now. Moments later we got a statement from

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Speaker 2: the Prime Minister and said I have accepted Andrew Bailey's

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Speaker 2: resignation as a minister following an incident involving as staff

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Speaker 2: member last week. Mister Bailey indicated to me that his

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Speaker 2: actions fell short of the expectations he sets himself and

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Speaker 2: that those expectations of a minister, and as such he

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Speaker 2: has offered his resignation as a minister, which I have accepted,

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Speaker 2: and he went on to thank him for his hard work.

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Speaker 2: So what we we don't know a lot of details

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Speaker 2: at this stage, but it sounds like there was some

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Speaker 2: sort of altercation about the work and he was you know,

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Speaker 2: you go back to some of the words in his

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Speaker 2: statement here. As many of you know, I have been

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Speaker 2: impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolio. So it's

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Speaker 2: almost priming us for this sort of setting the scene

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Speaker 2: as somebody that was a bit annoyed that work maybe

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Speaker 2: wasn't getting done. But we've got a stand up with

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Speaker 2: a media stand up with Andrew Bailey in just over

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Speaker 2: an hour's time, so we'll get a bit more information. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, on the surface of it, yelling at

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Speaker 1: someone and putting your hand on them doesn't seem that bad.

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Speaker 1: There must be more to it than that, right, what

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Speaker 1: does it?

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Speaker 2: Touched the upper upper arm? Yes? Yeah, and amazing.

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Speaker 1: It's actually not allowed. If me and Tyler were having

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Speaker 1: a huge argument in office and I touched his upper arm,

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Speaker 1: is that considered? Does that an assault?

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Speaker 2: Ohay? I wouldn't with defense if you complain or not.

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Speaker 2: I mean these days, if you complain and take it

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Speaker 2: up enough higher up the chain, then it can turn

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Speaker 2: into a big thing. But I'll tell you what else

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Speaker 2: is interesting about this one. We've also been given a

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Speaker 2: time frame of the events. It starts on Tuesday last week,

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Speaker 2: and it said the incident occurred in the Minister's office.

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Speaker 2: Now the next day, Wednesday the nineteenth, the Prime Minister's

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Speaker 2: Office and Ministerial Services were informed of this incident. Thursday

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Speaker 2: the twentieth and Friday the twenty first, so that's last week.

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Speaker 2: Ministerial Services discuss the incident with the affected parties. The

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister is informed of the incident at this point

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Speaker 2: and then Friday the twenty first, so Friday evening that

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Speaker 2: is when the minister resigned. But we only found out

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Speaker 2: about it. It's just a few moments ago. So they've

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Speaker 2: been sitting on this one all weekend.

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Speaker 1: Which is not the normal way of doing things. If

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Speaker 1: something happens on late on Friday, I get it out

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Speaker 1: so people you know that people are away for the weekend,

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Speaker 1: and forget about it by Monday.

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Speaker 2: Well I was thinking the same thing. I think probably

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Speaker 2: what has happened is they this government has kind of

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Speaker 2: got the memo about dropping bad news on a Friday night,

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Speaker 2: and they would have just been completely hammered for trying

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Speaker 2: to bury the news. So they've actually waited until it's

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Speaker 2: a little bit more new. So the damned if they do,

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Speaker 2: damned if they don't. Really, they certainly are Yeah, And

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Speaker 2: how confident are you that we can get some more

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Speaker 2: contacts into what happened there. Do you think he is

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Speaker 2: going to be shielded about the exact scenario on what

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Speaker 2: unfolded with this stuff. No, I think he's going to

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Speaker 2: have to front up. To be honest, I think that

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Speaker 2: this statement, or both of these statements leave a lot

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Speaker 2: to be desired because there's just so little detail. And

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Speaker 2: with there's so little detail, people start to fill in

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Speaker 2: the blanks themselves, so when they come out. And what

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Speaker 2: we've got now is we've got this sort of void

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Speaker 2: of information for about an hour and a half two

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Speaker 2: hours where people are just going to be like, well,

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Speaker 2: thinking the worst, and he's not going to be able

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Speaker 2: to defend himself until he talks to us in about

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Speaker 2: an hour and a half.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because on the face of a hated argument where

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Speaker 1: some words are saying and then at one point a

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Speaker 1: hand touches someone's upper arm does not seem like the

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Speaker 1: end of the world to me. But we'll wait and

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Speaker 1: find out what's happened. Absolutely. For more from News Talks

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Speaker 1: B listen live on air or online and keep our

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