Andrew Bayly: Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister on public complaint of behaviour during ministerial visit

Small business affairs Minister Andrew Bayly has found himself in hot water after a member of the public complained he swore at, mocked and ridiculed him during a ministerial visit.

The Prime Minister’s office has released a letter from the complainant which alleges Minister Bayly repeatedly called the person a loser and made an ‘L’ sign with his fingers on his forehead.

Andrew Bayly has “unreservedly apologised” and tells Heather du Plessis Allanit was the person concerned who decided to make the matter public.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Senior Minister Andrew Bailey has apologized for telling a member
of the public to f off and repeatedly calling them
a loser.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
It happened in a ministerial visit to a workplace. The
worker complained, saying they were the only person in the warehouse.
And Andrew Bailey then told them to quote, go home,
take some wine and f off, then called them a
loser for being the only person still working, and then
did the l sign with his fingers on his forehead.
Andrew Bailey has with been Now, hey, Andrew.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good evening.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Is that what happened?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh look, I don't want to necessarily get into.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
Who said what, other than the fact that I had
a brief exchange with a person concerned and unfuts knee
he took offense at what was said and to him
I've unreserveably apologized for pacing him in that situation. It
wasn't intended, but it was lighthearted manner that we were

(00:54):
discussing and.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
It was only for a few minutes. But unfortunate he
has taken offense.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, did you tell him to f off and get
some wine and go home?

Speaker 4 (01:01):
Okay, I don't believe I use those words. But again
I don't really want to say I know, but it's important.
So the issue more important is that, unfortunately I put
him in a situation where you felt offended.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Did you do the outside of that situation? I shouldn't
have put him into that situation, and I feel very apologetic.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Did you do the L sign?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Andrew?

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Look again, I don't want to get into the details.
It is just what it is. And he's taken offense
to what went on, and I have unreserveably apologized to
the person concerned, and I'm disappointed that I put him
in that situation.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Had you been drinking?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Did this happen at a winery?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
I'm not going to go until where it happened, but because.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm trying to figure out why the reference to the
bottle of wine and on in October you visited a winery,
So is that where it happened.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
No, I'm not going to say where it happened o'bo See,
we're maintaining confidentiality of the person concerned and also.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
The place where it occurred. So I don't want to
go into that.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
But I have been about the fact that the incident
took place, and I have written to the person twice
to apologize unreserveably.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
And so that's where we find ourselves.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Does the person complain?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I was only aware of it a few days later.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
But I don't know when it happened. So when was
a few days later?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
What happened earlier this month?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Okay? So how long have you been aware of the complaint?

Speaker 4 (02:41):
I've been aware of it for a while, and soon
as I was, I made aware of it. No, no,
as soon as I made aware of it that I
then provided that we're setting out my apology.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
When were you aware of it.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Earlier this month?

Speaker 3 (02:58):
So why have you gone public with it today?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well?

Speaker 4 (03:03):
The person has chosen to go public, and so we responded.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Have they spoken to the media? Have they?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
They have?

Speaker 4 (03:14):
They have canvas a number of politicians about the issue,
and so look, again, I don't really want to go
to but certainly they've made many people aware of the issue.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Well it's either Labor or the Greens or the Maori Party.
So who did they go to?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Look, I'm not going to ance that people can answer
for themselves. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
So Andrew, I was giving you credit earlier and say, well,
at least your front foot of the thing. But you've
on and you are, but you're only front footing it
because opposition MP's found out about it.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
No, No, look the meta and you've gone about it
for ages. Look I was made aware of it.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
I wrote to the person concerned, the company was dealing
with it, and then the person concerned decided to go
public on it.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Was this going to break tonight?

Speaker 4 (04:06):
I'm not necessarily I don't know when it was going
to break, but we've chosen to do it. I obviously
had written to him and unreservedly apologized to him, and
I've done that again twice. But obviously the person's chosen
to do what they do, and that's his progative because
I put them in a situation where he felt uncomfortable.
And again I just say that I've apologized to them.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Okay, so as it stands, you're probably not going to
get the sack for this, right, But is there anything
else that we don't know that could put you in jeopardy?

Speaker 4 (04:39):
No, and I've apologized. The Prime Minster said behaviors un becoming.
It wasn't intended to be hurtful, but obviously some second
offense and I stand behind that my actions cause that
offense and that's why I unreserveably apologize to them. So
you know, beyond that, I have had many hundreds of

(05:00):
visits with companies over the last ten years, and obviously
this is one where what was meant to be what
was quite a lighthearted conversation for a few minutes, turned
into something that's much more difficult than that.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, Andrew, thank you for having your chat to us.
Andrew Bailey, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister. For more from
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