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Brigitte Morton: Political commentator believes delaying telling the public about Andrew Bayly's resignation is no big deal · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, obviously, Andrew Bailey I gave up his ministerial portfolios
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for an instant with the staffer. He announced it yesterday.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He in fact resigned to the Prime minister on Friday.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: He apparently put his hand on the staffer's upper arm
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: during what he called an animated discussion. But he's refusing
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to go into any detail about that discussion. He says
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: he's apologized, but it's not the first time his conduct
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: has been questioned. Political commentator bridget to Morton is with
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: me now, Hello, bridget good morning. So he slowly lost
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: it in the public eye. Really, he'd already done, he'd
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: already had the Loser controversy. This was the second one,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and he just realized that time was running out.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's very clear that when you're
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: in an employer employee relationship like he was, that this
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: kind of behavior is inappropriate. He recognized that, the Prime
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Minister recognized that he wasn't really any other way he
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: could go.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: He's gone to the back benches. He hasn't gone completely.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Should he have gone completely? And if he has gone
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to the back benches, is there any way he can
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: come back up?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you never say never when it comes
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: to this, but I think it's a difficult road. There's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: a lot of talented people on that back bench that
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: are all waiting to be a ministerial slot as well,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: so it's going to be difficult for him to come
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: back into the cabinet.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, should he run for MP again or do you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: think the electorate might have might have moved against him?
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So, I mean, he's got a very popular electorate. He's
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: always had a really strong result there, which seems to
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: indicate at least that there is some you know, you know,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: respect for him within the electorate. I think the election
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: is still a little bit way off, but it would
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: come down to whether or not that's what he wants
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: to do with his.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Career going forward. Okay, Now, look, you mentioned there's plenty
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: of other back benches who want to step up into
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: cabinet positions, but there are other political editors have written
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that the problem with the National Party, after being hollowed
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: out by the Labor Party in the previous election, they've
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: got an awful lot of first terms. Even our Prime
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Minister is a first termer. So here's the question, is
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: National running out of experienced politicians who've been in cabinet seats,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: who have been in responsible positions.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean Scott's Simson who stepped into Andrew Bailey's
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: shoes here has you know, he's been around a long time.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: He's a very experienced of Leitch of MP, has previously
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: been a minister in the former government. So I think
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: that's an indication that there is some of that talent
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: on the backbench. Also, as many of us know that
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: being in parliament itself is not necessarily the only experience
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: you want for somebody going into a bigger minister sometimes
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: having those connections into the business world or health or
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: education a great criteria as well.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, people are calling Chris Hipkins a hypocrite. Do you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: reckon he was in terms of calling.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: That this wasn't dealt with cleanly. Yeah, I think he
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: has been a bit of a hypocrite here. We've just
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: got to look at the Michael Woods scandal. You know,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: it took like three weeks, he was given personal leave.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: You know, he's given multiple warnings. It's just not true
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that Happkins would say that, you know, his ministers would
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: been gold within a couple of hours.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, and therefore did Christopher like to make the wrong
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: move by allowing Bailey to have a weekend, you know,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to resign on Friday, have a weekend to pull himself
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: together and then announce it to the public. That's been
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: size as well. This has formed a hole that Chris
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Dickins has gone for even if the years hypocritical. So
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: was that a mistake by Christopher Luxon not to announce
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: this all on Friday?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean a it is a weekend.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: It's the portfolio is a commerce and consumer affears. They're
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: not something in which he was going to be a
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: major disaster of the week. We're not talking about how
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: or civil defense for any of those kind of portfolios.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Also just going to remember sometimes that politicians are people too,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: and be able to give his time to tell his
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: family and also the staff, because remember all those staff
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: in his office have now actually lost their positions and
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: have to reapply or make decision about what they do next.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I think it's fears to actually end out sort of
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: that to happen before the media start, you know, having
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: their time to go through all of the questions.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually maybe I'm maybe I'm an outlier. I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: actually thought it was handled pretty well and with decency
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: to all players.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:57
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• 4:00
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