The small business minister has escaped an embarrassing demotion for what he claims was banter gone wrong, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

Bayly still has questions to answer

Transport minister Simeon Brown was at last night’s post-cabinet press conference, but he had few chances to speak. Once the roading announcement was out of the way (work is under way on a new road of national significance), and after a quick question on Wellington Council (Brown has received advice, but wouldn’t provide further details), attention quickly turned to someone very much not on the podium: Andrew Bayly. Yesterday was the first opportunity for the prime minister to be grilled following Friday evening’s revelations that Bayly, the small business minister, purportedly told a worker to “fuck off” during a business visit. Stuff’s Bridie Witton has the key details here, if this has somehow passed you by.

As Jenna Lynch analysed on ThreeNews last night, while the government would have been hoping this story went away over the weekend, there are still questions for Bayly himself to answer. Bayly was sent on something of an apology grand tour on Friday and, during his appearance on RNZ’s Checkpoint, appeared to cast doubt on whether or not he had used the swear referenced in the complainant’s letter. And, he was also called out by host Lisa Owen for seemingly apologising for causing offence rather than for his own actions.

PM: Bayly got it ‘horribly wrong’

Luxon, speaking last night, defended the handling of the situation and appeared comfortable with how Bayly had responded. As 1News reported, the prime minister said that while Bayly had got it “horribly wrong”, he had accepted responsibility and apologised.

The known timeline, as detailed here by The Post’s Thomas Manch, is that while the incident occurred early in the month, the prime minister’s office was only made aware of it on Thursday evening. That’s the same day other political parties were alerted. Luxon then had a conversation with Bayly on the Friday morning and details of the incident and apology were proactively provided to political reporters that evening. Luxon maintained he was comfortable that the issue had not been escalated to him earlier, as Bayly genuinely believed he had resolved the situation himself (having sent an initial apology a week prior). “What I’m always looking for in these cases [is] have you internalised and understood how much hurt and insult you have caused, and what have you done to make that, as best you can, to make amends?” said Luxon.

On Newstalk ZB’s drive show last night, political correspondent Barry Soper suggested the media was going too hard on Bayly over what was “like a ‘dad joke’ gone wrong”. Soper also made the unfounded claim that the complainant was “politically motivated”. Asked about this yesterday, Luxon did not respond directly but reiterated that Bayly had overstepped the mark.

Parliament IT recalled complainant’s email

Meanwhile, questions are being asked over why parliament’s IT system recalled the email the complainant sent to various political leaders last week, reported RNZ’s Jo Moir. The speaker of the house has been asked to investigate the issue after a Labour MP received the email before it subsequently vanished. Luxon told reporters he was not aware of this and his office said they were not responsible. But Labour leader Chris Hipkins said further investigation was needed. “It does seem somewhat strange that an email can be received, read, and then disappear from their inbox.”

Hipkins has continued to query why Bayly remains in his ministerial roles, telling media that a “demotion would certainly be in order”.

Setting an example

Bayly has effectively been put on the naughty step by the PM and has held onto his ministerial roles. Writing for the Herald (paywalled), Claire Trevett contrasted Bayly with former National MP Aaron Gilmore who resigned from parliament in 2013 following a public scandal at a Hanmer Springs restaurant. “The technical reason he lost his job was for the crime of misleading the prime minister rather than being rude to a waiter,” Trevett noted. But, she added: “The bigger reason in his case was the public outcry reached uncomfortable levels and more stories were emerging. The PM had wasted enough breath trying to defend him.”

That’s the same situation Bayly risks finding himself in now, though he’s now made it past four days without any further incidents emerging.

On the flipside, Mediaworks host Duncan Garner has argued that Luxon already looks weak for failing to take stronger action. Luxon has demoted ministers previously without the need for a public embarrassment. Both Melissa Lee and Penny Simmonds were shuffled out of portfolios simply for underperforming, though the prime minister wouldn’t admit that was the reason. Writing for The Post at the time, Kelly Dennett said that Luxon’s decision to demote the pair “sent a clear and decisive message to his caucus that it won’t take a scandal or serious wrongdoing to be sent to the backbenches”. It appears that, at least for now, Bayly has avoided being made a similar example of.

The regional development minister is in Singapore as he says ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ about where we get support for new local projects, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

Foreign investment in the regions

The regional development minister has headed to Singapore for a week long trip to meet with “potential investors, business leaders and policymakers”. It’s not unexpected for ministers to head overseas to try and lure influential people back into New Zealand, but the timing of the trip is notable given it’s about a week after both the government and Shane Jones’ own party, New Zealand First, doubled down on their plan to try and secure overseas investment in New Zealand.

“I want to hear about the opportunities investors and industry in Singapore are interested in exploring and share more about our work to develop a pipeline of investible infrastructure opportunities,” said Jones in a statement.

Searching for solutions

Jones holds several interconnected titles in the coalition – along with regional development minister, he’s also minister for resources and fisheries. He also wields a significant amount of power as one of the trio of ministers with oversight for the controversial fast-track legislation (though, remember, some of this control has been watered down in the face of opposition).

It’s of no surprise then that in this government and previous administrations, he has pitched himself as the so-called “prince of the provinces”. In a wide-ranging interview before the election with The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive, Jones described his identity as being “rooted in a rural existence and a regional existence”. Speaking to the NBR’s Brent Edwards ahead of his trip abroad (paywalled), Jones explained why he and his party has softened their historic hostility towards foreign investment – and how it will benefit rural New Zealand. “Let’s face it, beggars can’t be choosers,” he said. “We have a huge infrastructure deficit in New Zealand [and] we cannot fund it exclusively from taxpayer revenue.”

Of particular interest to Jones is the need to upscale our energy sector (Jones is also associate energy minister) and he will meet with several groups related to this area while in Singapore. Jones told the NBR he was keen to try and boost our geothermal capability, noting that it was “devilishly hard” to increase solar and wind power, while difficult to develop new sources of hydroelectricity. Jones recently told 1News there was a “tremendous future” for expanding our geothermal energy. “Wouldn’t it be great if we were the first nation in the world to draw from a new energy source — supercritical, deep-seated, infinite source of geothermal energy?” he said.

Creating opportunities at home

Back home, Jones remains committed to bolstering the regions and in an interview with the Herald’s Joseph Los’e described the need to govern not “purely for Khandallah or Kohimarama”. In the Ardern government, Jones was charged with doling out cash from the $3bn Provincial Growth Fund, which he said helped to boost economic outcomes. “Take the Te Tai Tokerau irrigation project. For Māori landowners, if you don’t have irrigation or water, the land is just an emotional heirloom,” he said. In the current coalition, Jones has a smaller $1.2bn pool for his rejigged Regional Infrastructure Fund. Applications for funding opened in July, while this year’s budget also confirmed $200m would go towards flood resilience infrastructure. The minister has been on a large regional tour as he works to promote his fund and call for applications. At a forestry summit in Gisborne last week, Jones described himself as a pro-growth and pro-industry politician.

National previously criticised Jones for effectively overseeing a “slush fund”, though infrastructure minister Chris Bishop said things are different this time around as the new fund would be “ministered well and diligently”, reported RNZ. In a report for his Politik website (paywalled), Richard Harman explained that the new fund focused on “investments rather than grants” and was primarily a “capital fund that provides funding through a mix of loan and equity investments”. Jones, speaking at a forum in Northland on the outskirts of Ngawha Prison, described his main “mission” as regional development minister was to “ensure that infrastructure, jobs, but most importantly investment, can proceed with a minimum amount of fuss so that we create opportunities where such facilities [prisons] over time don’t have such a high level of occupancy”.

‘A new lease of life’

Jones hasn’t gone about promoting the regions without attracting a fair amount of attention. As resources minister, Jones has unabashedly backed the reversal of the oil and gas exploration ban he previously endorsed while in government with Labour. “This is a multi-decade set of changes, but it’s better that we get ahead of the curve,” Jones said in 2018 when the ban was announced. He’s been leading the charge to reignite the mining sector, relishing the chance to speak to packed town halls, often while loudly retaliating against the protesters outside. As a minister with oversight for fast-track, he found himself in hot water over an undeclared meeting with a mining boss. In other words, Jone has been busy – both to the delight of his supporters and the fury of his detractors.

On the latest episode of The Spinoff’s politics podcast Gone by Lunchtime, co-host Ben Thomas described Jones as a “surprise” high performer in the current government. “Jones has never been known for his work rate,” said Thomas. “You generally don’t associate Shane Jones with sort of… really getting through the papers and the work, but he’s really had a new lease of life in this government.”