New Zealand woke this morning to the decidedly surreal news the Justice Minister had crashed her car and had been arrested.
Images shot across news sites of a dented parked ute, one of its tyres blown out.
Those crowing that "the wheels are falling off" this government had their new visual metaphor, and it wasn't far off.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, looking tired and genuinely concerned, called a press conference and clarified Kiri Allan, in a state of "extreme emotional distress", had been in a car crash on Evans Bay Parade about 9pm yesterday.
She was taken into custody and held at the Wellington Central Police Station. Allan recently split from her fiancée and took mental health leave in June.
Released about 1am today, Allan had been charged with careless use of a motor vehicle and refusing to accompany a police officer. She has been summoned to appear in court "at a later date", Hipkins said.
She spoke to Hipkins and resigned about 7am, and by 9am her portfolios (justice and regional development) were stripped from her profile on the Labour Party website.
Justice, it seems, is swift.
But the incident was all the more inexplicable due to Allan's track record up to this point. She was a rising star — she was even discussed as a long shot, but a shot nonetheless — to take the top job when former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern resigned in January.
What a difference six months can make.
Anyone perusing a weekend newspaper at a café on Saturday would have thought Allan, freshly back from leave, and following an earlier mental health break, was back on the up and up. Broadsheet commentators were lauding her masterful performance delivering a new ram-raid policy. It showed she'd done the background work and was across the detail, showing up more experienced ministers in Cabinet.
This morning, fielding several questions about what this latest ministerial issue might mean for the looming election, Hipkins was careful to emphasize his main concern was Allan's well-being, albeit hinting those broader political questions would be addressed later on in the day, at the regular post-Cabinet press conference.
Allan is the fifth minister to cause Hipkins a headache since he took over from former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern in January.
Stuart Nash was sacked. Meka Whaitiri defected to te Pāti Māori. Michael Wood resigned. Jan Tinetti was flogged by the Privileges Committee. And now Allan.
It calls into question just how long the party, and therefore the Government, can absorb the growing pressure. (Source: 1News)
So does this spell the death knell for Labour? Without a crystal ball, it's impossible to know — but it's not good.
The latest 1News Verian poll — just last week — asked eligible voters if they believed Hipkins was doing a good job managing his Cabinet ministers.
The results were split — 40% said yes, he was — but 39% said no.
Those more likely to give Hipkins a longer leash were Labour Party and Green Party voters (a captive audience) while less likely were men aged 35 to 55+ and those with an annual household income of more than $150,000. They were also joined by National and ACT voters, so no love lost nor gained there.
Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni said she didn't think voters were concerned with such ructions, but people spoken to by 1News had nuanced and informed views on them. They're paying attention and they will take note of this. They shouldn't be patronised or underestimated.
This election — for Labour and National — is a scrap for the centre, while minor parties battle it out in the vacuum left by the major parties on the farther edges of the political spectrum.
So what matters is what centrist, or swing voters, think about Labour's cohesiveness, or lack thereof. They might forgive a few mishaps and scandals, but at some point it has a cumulative effect that could be insurmountable for the party to shake.
The question is whether 82 days is enough to do so, and whether the National Party can actually capitalise on Labour's fumbles. The last 1News Verian poll, taken after a series of ministerial scandals, suggested that is not the case — yet.
This scandal also feels unique to Allan and her personal circumstances, and it appears many — across the political spectrum — have sympathy for that. That may mean Allan's transgression is not counted in that cumulative effect. Hipkins will be hopeful the sympathy transfers from his former minister to him.
Some might say the wheels are falling off, but perhaps it's just a popped tyre and a few dents.
But, undeniably, nobody's getting far on three wheels.
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