NZ minister resigns after he 'placed hand' on staff's arm
WELLINGTON — New Zealand's commerce minister Andrew Bayly has resigned after he "placed a hand" on a staff member's upper arm last week, in what he described as "overbearing" behavior.Bayly said on Monday that he was "deeply sorry" about the incident, which he described as not an argument but an "animated discussion".While Bayly has left his ministerial posts, he remains a member of parliament.His resignation on Monday comes after he was criticized last October for calling a winery worker a "loser", including putting his fingers in an 'L' shape on his forehead — and allegedly using an expletive directed at them."As many of you know, I have been impatient to drive change in my ministerial portfolios," Bayly said in a statement."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."Bayly resigned last Friday, said New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, adding that the incident happened last Tuesday.Luxon said the government's handling the issue within a week was "pretty quick" and "pretty impressive".However, Labour leader Chris Hipkins criticized Luxon as "incredibly weak" over his handling of the issue, saying that it should not have been dragged over the weekend."Christopher Luxon has once again set the bar for ministerial behavior so low, that it would be almost impossible to get over it," he told reporters on Monday.Bayly himself said that he had to talk to his family and "would have had difficulty" speaking to the media earlier.Bayly was first elected to the New Zealand Parliament in 2014. Before joining politics, Bayly worked in the finance industry.Bayly is the first minister to resign of his own accord under PM Luxon, whose favourability has dipped to a record low, according to a poll. The 1News-Verian poll also showed his National-led coalition government is losing support among voters.The government has recently come under fire for some policies that were seen by some as anti-Māori, including the introduction of a bill that many argued undermined Māori rights and the dissolution of the Māori Health Authority — which was set up under the last Labour government to try and create greater health equality.
Scott Simpson, the ruling National Party's senior whip, will be taking over Bayly as the Minister for ACC — the national accidental injury compensation scheme — and the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. — BBC
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
2 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Thai hostage recovered from southern Gaza in military operation
JERUSALEM — The body of a Thai hostage, Nattapong Pinta, who was abducted alive during the October 7 attacks was recovered from southern Gaza in a military operation on Friday, according to a statement from the Israeli military and the Shin Bet security service. The announcement comes just days after Israel recovered the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages from Gaza. Pinta, 35, was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel where he had been working in agriculture, according to an Israeli military official, who said it is estimated that he was killed during the first months of captivity. Pinta was a husband and father working in Israel to support his family in Thailand, the official said. 'We will not rest until all the hostages, living and deceased, are returned home,' Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. Pinta was abducted by the Mujahideen, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, a militant group that took part in the Hamas-led attack on Israel. The IDF said it is the same organization that kidnapped the Bibas family and killed Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, the mother and two young sons who became the most prominent among Hamas' captives. Earlier this week, Israel announced that the bodies of Judy Winston-Haggai, 70, and Gadi Haggai, 72, were recovered from southern Gaza. The two were also taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The couple had four children and seven retrieval of Pinta's body comes with an intense Israeli operation underway in Gaza, with the Civil Defense reporting at least 38 people were killed in Israeli attacks on IDF said four soldiers were killed and five wounded early Friday morning when an explosive was detonated in a building in Khan Younis in which they were operating, causing part of the structure to collapse.A total of 55 hostages remain in Gaza, including one taken in 2014. Twenty are believed to be still the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas militants on October 7, many were migrant workers from poor rural parts of Asia, who had gone to work in Israel's agricultural, construction and health care sectors to send money back home. — CNN
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
UK Labour gets rare boost with surprise election win
LONDON: Labour scored a surprise win in a Scottish Parliament by-election on Friday, giving UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government a rare moment of won with 8,559 votes, overturning the comfortable majority of 4,582 earned by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in SNP were favorites going into the election, but saw their vote collapse by almost 17 percent, netting them 7,957 votes and delivering a heavy blow to the party that runs Scotland.'People in Scotland have once again voted for change,' Starmer wrote on X.'Next year there is a chance to turbo charge delivery by putting Labour in power on both sides of the border,' he and his government have seen their popularity plunge since coming to power last secured 31.6 percent of the vote, slightly down on the 2021 they capitalized on a fractured opposition, with the anti-immigration Reform UK party making inroads into Scottish politics for the first time with 26.1 percent of the Conservative party continued its dismal recent electoral record, gaining just six percent of the ballot was held following the death of SNP lawmaker and government minister Christina McKelvie in March.
Saudi Gazette
a day ago
- Saudi Gazette
Israeli military recovers two hostages' bodies in southern Gaza
JERUSALEM — Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of two Israeli-Americans taken back to Gaza as hostages during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, the Israeli military says. Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, who was also a Canadian citizen, and her husband Gadi Haggai, 72, were murdered by gunmen from the Mujahideen Brigades group when they attacked Kibbutz Nir Oz, a statement said. Their bodies were found in the southern Khan Younis area of Gaza overnight and brought back to Israel for forensic identification. There are now 56 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his wife sent their condolences to the families of Judi and Gadi Haggai. "Our hearts grieve over this terrible loss. May their memories be blessed," he added."I would like to thank, and express appreciation to, the fighters and commanders for this determined and successful operation. We will not rest, nor will we be silent, until we return home all of our hostages — the living and the deceased."The couple's families recalled how they "went out for a walk on the morning of that cursed Saturday and never returned"."We welcome the closure and their return to a proper burial at home, in Israel," they an English teacher, and Gadi Haggai, who used to work in Kibbutz Nir Oz's kitchen, were last seen alive in a video they shared with a group chat at the start of the 7 October attack. They were seen taking cover in a field as incoming rockets fired from Gaza streaked overhead and the sound of gunfire was later told friends and relatives they had been wounded, before ceasing couple's daughter Iris Weinstein Haggai said after the attack her mother had told her they had been "shot by terrorists on a motorcycle and that my dad was wounded really bad". She added: "Paramedics tried to send her an ambulance. The ambulance got hit by a rocket."In December 2023, the kibbutz announced that both Judi and Gadi were killed that day and their bodies were being held hostage in Wednesday, an Israeli military official said the couple's bodies were recovered from the Khan Younis area following an operation based on "precise intelligence" from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security said they could not disclose further details due to the sensitivity of the operation. However, Israeli Army Radio reported the intelligence was obtained through the Shin Bet's interrogation of a Palestinian fighter captured by Israeli troops in Gaza."We will keep doing the utmost for the mission of bringing our hostages back - the living, to reunite with their families, and the deceased to dignified burial. We will deploy all the methods and tools in our disposal for this goal," the military official Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged decision-makers to do everything they could to agree a new ceasefire deal with Hamas to secure the return of all the remaining hostages."There is no need to wait another 608 agonizing days for this," it said. "The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of the Israeli people want."US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was "united in prayer" for the Haggai family."Hamas must release all remaining hostages, including Omer Neutra and Itay Chen," he added, referring to two other Israeli-Americans who the Israeli military says were killed on 7 October while serving as soldiers and whose bodies were taken back to Prime Minister Mark Carney said: "The return of their remains is a time to begin to heal and to rest. We mourn with [Judi Haggai's] family. May her memory be a blessing."Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented cross-border attack almost 20 months ago, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken four people, two of them dead, were already being held captive in Gaza before the far, 199 hostages have been returned, 148 of them alive, mostly through two temporary ceasefire deals with least 54,677 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory's Hamas-run health imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month truce during which 33 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages were freed. Israel said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release the remaining 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Netanyahu said would see troops "take control of all areas" of Gaza. Israel also partially eased its blockade, allowing some food into the territory amid warnings from experts of a looming than 4,400 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza over the past three months, while 640,000 others have been displaced again by Israeli ground operations and evacuation of a new ceasefire deal faded last week, with Hamas and Israel remaining at odds over the conditions of the latest US said it was prepared to release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead ones, which was the number specified in US envoy Steve Witkoff's proposal, in exchange for a 60-day truce and the release of Palestinian the group also repeated its demands for guarantees that the truce would lead to a permanent ceasefire, as well as a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the resumption of unrestricted aid called Hamas's statement a refusal of the proposal, and Witkoff said it was totally unacceptable. But a Hamas official insisted it had acted positively and responsibly. — BBC
