Bayly complaint: Email disappeared from Labor MP’s inbox

An email complaining about the behavior of Trade and Small Business Minister Andrew Bayly was sent on Friday, but quickly disappeared from a Labor MP’s inbox.
Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker

The Speaker of the House has been tasked with investigating how an email complaining about Andrew Bayly’s behavior was received and then disappeared from a Labor MP’s parliamentary inbox.

Political parties received an email on Friday from a businessman who complained about the behavior of the Minister of Commerce and Small Business during a recent ministerial visit.

In a written complaint – released by the minister on Friday afternoon – the employee said he felt “degraded, embarrassed and deeply disrespected” during his visit in early October.

In the letter, the complainant detailed his meeting with Bayly, saying the minister asked him why he was still at work and told him: “Have a bottle of wine and go home…have some wine and fuck off.”

“What followed was both shocking and humiliating. He repeatedly called me a loser, saying the reason I was still at work was because I am a loser.”

The worker said Bayly then “formed an ‘L’ shape with his fingers on his forehead.”

Bayly wrote to the worker on Friday to apologize and also informed the prime minister, who said he had not met the standards expected of him, but that he trusted him.

The government released the complaint and Bayly’s two letters – one to the company after the visit and another Friday to the worker – on the same day the worker sent details of his meeting to all other political parties.

Deputy Labor leader Carmel Sepuloni was the recipient and when the email arrived her aide read it and flagged it for the MP to read later.

The email was then recalled and disappeared from Sepuloni’s inbox.

When the employee questioned Parliament’s IT department, it was told that the message had been removed because it was flagged as spam, but was then reinstated on Monday.

Labor leader Chris Hipkins told media on Monday afternoon that he had contacted the president because it “ultimately calls into question exactly how an email can be received and removed”.

“It seems somewhat strange that an email could be received, read, and then disappear from their inbox.”

The Prime Minister’s office said it was not responsible for the removal of the email – the first Christopher Luxon heard of it was when RNZ spoke about it with him at its post-press conference. Cabinet.

The president said he had no comment when contacted by RNZ.

Hipkins also raised questions about the lack of consequences for Bayly’s actions, saying a “demotion would definitely be in order.”

“The standards that Christopher Luxon is imposing on his government’s ministers are lower than those he set when he was leader of the opposition and those he set for the previous government.”

The Labor leader said Bayly had not been “upfront with the New Zealand public about exactly what he had said and what he had not said”.

“And he still hasn’t explained to New Zealand workers exactly why he thinks working late makes someone a loser,” Hipkins said.

Luxon told media today that he supports Bayly, but added that the minister’s conduct was not up to standard.

“He sincerely, sincerely (apologized). And that’s what I always look for in these cases. Have you internalized and understood how much you hurt and insulted, and what did you do? makes you… as best you can, make amends?

“But above all, I would expect that in the future – and I made this very clear to him, and he reassured me – that there would no longer be this behavior.”

Luxon would not comment on what type of complaint would merit its immediate attention – saying only that it had handled personnel issues “fairly and expeditiously.”

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