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Andrew Bayly: Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister on public complaint of behaviour during ministerial visit · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Senior Minister Andrew Bailey has apologized for telling a member
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the public to f off and repeatedly calling them
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a loser. Now. It happened in a ministerial visit to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a workplace. The worker complained, saying they were the only
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: person in the warehouse. And Andrew Bailey then told them
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to quote, go home, take some wine and f off,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: then called them a loser for being the only person
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  Speaker 1: still working, and then did the l sign with his
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: fingers on his forehead. Andrew Bailey has with been Now, hey, Andrew.
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  Speaker 2: Good evening.
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  Speaker 1: Is that what happened?
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  Speaker 2: Oh look, I don't want to necessarily get into who
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: said what, other than the fact that I had a
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: brief exchange with a person concerned and unfortunately he took
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  Speaker 2: offense at what was said and to him. I've unreserveably
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  Speaker 2: apologized for pacing him in that situation. It wasn't intended,
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  Speaker 2: but it was lighthearted manner that we were discussing. It
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: was only for a few minutes, but unfortunately has taken offense.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did you tell him to f off and get
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: some wine and go home?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I don't believe I use those words, But again
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  Speaker 2: I don't really want to say, I know, but it's important.
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  Speaker 2: So the the issue, more importantly is that, unfortunately I
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: put him in a situation where you felt offended. Did
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  Speaker 2: you do the outside of that situation? I shouldn't have
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  Speaker 2: put him into that situation, and I feel very apologetic.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Did you do the L sign?
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  Speaker 2: Andrew? Look again, I don't want to get into the details.
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  Speaker 2: It is just what it is, and he's taken offense
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  Speaker 2: to what we went on, and I have unreserveably apologized
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  Speaker 2: to the person concerned, and I'm just appined that I
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  Speaker 2: put him in that situation.
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  Speaker 1: Had you been drinking?
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  Speaker 2: No?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Did this happen at a winery?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to go until where it happened, but because.
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  Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out why the reference to the
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  Speaker 1: bottle of wine and on in October you visited a winery,
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  Speaker 1: So is that where it happened.
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  Speaker 2: No, I'm not going to say where it's happened. Obviously
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  Speaker 2: we'll maintaining confidentiality of the person concerned and also the
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  Speaker 2: place where it occurred. So I don't want to go
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  Speaker 2: into that. But I have been about the fact that
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  Speaker 2: the incident took place, and I have written to the
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  Speaker 2: person twice to apologize unreserveably. And so that's where we
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  Speaker 2: find ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: When did the person complain?
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  Speaker 2: I was only aware of it a few days later, but.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know when it happened. So when was a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: few days later?
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  Speaker 2: Well, happened earlier this month?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So how long have you been aware of the complaint?
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  Speaker 2: I've been aware of it for a while, and soon
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  Speaker 2: as I was, I'm made aware of it. No, no,
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  Speaker 2: as soon as I made aware of it that I
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  Speaker 2: then provided that we're setting out my apology.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: When were you aware of it.
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  Speaker 2: Earlier this month?
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  Speaker 1: So why have you gone public with it today?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the person has chosen to go public, and so
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  Speaker 2: we responded.
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  Speaker 1: Have they spoken to the media? Have they?
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  Speaker 2: They have? They have canvas a number of politicians about
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  Speaker 2: the issue. And look, again, I don't really want to
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  Speaker 2: go to it, but certainly they've made many people aware
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of the issue.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's either labor or the Greens or the Maori Party,
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  Speaker 1: So who do they go to?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I'm not going to answer that people cannounce themselves.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So, Andrew, I was giving you credit earlier and saying, well,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: at least your front foot of the thing. But you've
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: only and you are, but you're only front footing it
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  Speaker 1: because opposition MP's found out about it.
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  Speaker 2: No, No, look the meta.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: And you've gone about it for ages.
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  Speaker 2: Look I was made aware of it. I wrote to
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  Speaker 2: the person concerned, the company was dealing with it, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: then the person concerned decided to go public on it.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Was this going to break tonight?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not necessarily I don't know when it was going
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  Speaker 2: to break, but we've chosen to do it. I obviously
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  Speaker 2: had written to him and unreservedly apologized to him, and
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  Speaker 2: I've done that again twice. But obviously the person's chosen
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  Speaker 2: to do what they do, and that's his progative because
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  Speaker 2: I put them in a situation where he felt uncomfortable.
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  Speaker 2: And again I just say that I've apologized him.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So as it stands, you're probably not going to
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  Speaker 1: get the sack for this, right. Is there anything else
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  Speaker 1: that we don't know that could put you in jeopardy?
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  Speaker 2: No, and I've apologized. The Prime Minster said behaviors un becoming.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't intended to be hurtful, but obviously some second offense,
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  Speaker 2: and I stand behind that. My actions cause that offense
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  Speaker 2: and that's why I unreserveably apologize to him. So you know,
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  Speaker 2: beyond that, I have had many hundreds of visits with
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  Speaker 2: companies over the last ten years, and obviously this is
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  Speaker 2: one where what was meant to be what was quite
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  Speaker 2: a lighthearted conversation for a few minutes, turned into something
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  Speaker 2: that's much more difficult than that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Andrew, thank you for having your chat to us.
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  Speaker 1: Andrew Bailey, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister,