4 Sep 2018

Meka Whaitiri not returning to Parliament during inquiry

From Morning Report, 7:17 am on 4 September 2018

New information has come to light about the dispute between the sidelined minister Meka Whaitiri and one of her staff. It's understood Ms Whaitiri man-handled her newly employed press secretary and she won't return to Parliament this week while she's under investigation. The Ministerial Services investigation is expected to take a couple of weeks. RNZ understands the incident took place in Gisborne last Monday when Meka Whaitiri was in the town for a Crown hui with Ngati Porou, along with a group of other Government Ministers, including the Prime Minister. At this stage it appears there were no witnesses to the event. Yesterday Jacinda Ardern was pressed at her regular media conference after Cabinet to give more details about the investigation but she was unwilling to do so.