There was no altercation and there was no assault. I did not touch my staff member.
Meka Whaitiri
I growled her for not doing her job, but I didn’t touch her. end quote.
Former government minister Meka Whaitiri was sacked and had her portfolios removed after an investigation into claims that she assaulted a staff member. Now that a bit of time has passed she is now pushing to get her job back claiming that the assault never happened. quote.
[…] The staff member, a press secretary, allegedly suffered bruising in the encounter […]
The staff member claimed Whaitiri came up behind her in the foyer of a building and grabbed her arm hard and took her outside when she saw Ardern having a press conference.
[…] David Patten, a Wellington lawyer who conducted an inquiry for Ministerial Services, the employer of ministerial staff, found that, on the balance of probabilities, the staff member’s version was the more likely explanation of events.
Whaitiri was suspended by Ardern as a minister on August 30 and sacked from her portfolios a month later after Ardern read the final report from Patten. end quote.
It will be interesting to see if she gets it back. Ardern has a very limited pool of people to call on these days. Here is a quick visual reminder of other ministers already fallen from grace.
And that is, of course, not even counting Phil Twyford who perhaps has survived “KiwiFail” simply because there is no one available to step up and take the portfolio off him.
It also does include Minister Eugenie Sage who is now infamous for using the C-word on television just like her role model, Green party Co-leader Marama Davidson.