Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says he still has confidence in Kiri Allan despite an allegation, levelled in the media, that the minister "yelled and screamed" at a staffer.
It comes as Hipkins is preparing to go for a week-long trip to Europe while Allan takes a break from work — one that she says is due to the school holidays and unrelated to the reports of her behaviour.
She said in a tweet yesterday: "I’m not on 'mental health leave again'. I'll take a couple of days off over school holidays because each parent has to as we don't have others that can take care of our kid.
Hipkins was cagey when asked yesterday whether he maintained confidence in the minister, but speaking to Breakfast today, he was asked directly and said: "Yes. Kiri is an incredibly competent and talented person who's clearly had a bit of a rough run lately.
"And whenever any minister goes through an experience like that, I would sit down and have a conversation with them, which I will do with Kiri when we're both back in a position where we can have a face-to-face meeting."
Allan has recently confirmed a relationship separation.
It comes as the Govt's confirmed it's improved working relations in the minister's office after concerns were raised. (Source: 1News)
In a tweet yesterday, she said: "My mental health issues were to do with personal things that happened. Mental health is not an excuse for poor behaviour - I’ve been clear, where there are issues to answer for, I will."
The PM said he would insist on having a face-to-face meeting with Allan — meaning addressing any ongoing issues would be on hold while he was in Europe.
"I think whenever a minister has been under a lot of pressure, which she has been over the last few weeks, it's important that we have an opportunity to sit down and talk about that and we will do that."
Last week, Stuff reported on one public servant who said the minister was "yelling and screaming at me on the phone so loud that my staff in the room could hear it".
One other staffer told the publication that they had "concerns" about how the minister dealt with staff.
But Allan "strongly refutes" the anonymous allegations reported.
She said in a statement that "no complaints have ever been taken up with MBIE or myself, and certainly nothing that resembles these allegations".
It came after it was confirmed there were working relationship issues within the minister's office, which the chief executive of DoC was aware of.
In this clip from June 6, Allan denied knowledge of any issues. (Source: 1News)
Speaking to Newshub's AM programme today, Hipkins said he would not directly investigate the allegation of "yelling and screaming" raised in the Stuff story as he believed it had already been dealt with.
"The feedback that I had from the relevant chief executives was that they were satisfied that those issues were resolved at the time that they were first raised," he said.
"Now, where you've got the people who are the actual employer, saying that they were satisfied, the issue was resolved, I'm not sure what I would be doing over the top of that.
"Ultimately, the responsibility here sits with the employer. There are clear rules around how all of that operates, and in this case, the employers are saying that they felt that the issue had been adequately resolved."
SHARE ME