Andrew Bayly: National MP reveals why he's looking to clear his name following events that led to his resignation

National MP Andrew Bayly wants to clear up details of events that led him to resign his ministerial roles. 

It was after allegations in February he'd placed a hand on a staffer's upper arm, during what he called an animated discussion.

No formal complaint was made - but he says that's contrary to what he was led to believe and he now regrets resigning. 

He says multiple things prompted him to quit.

"It wasn't just the formal complaint, it was the statement that three people corroborated the allegations and that was what made me get to a position where I offered my resignation."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As you heard earlier nationally, MP Andrew Bailey is fighting
to clear his name. He says he was misled about
alleged complaints against him that made him resign from his
job as a minister, and he is with us now,
Hi Andrew, Hello Heather Andrew. If you knew that there
was no formal complaint against you, would you have resigned?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
No, I wouldn't have resigned. It wasn't just the formal complaint.
It was the statement that three people corroborated the allegation.
And that's that was what made me get to a
position where I offered my resignation. And if I'd known
that now, I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Have well, because I mean, from reading the documents, it
seems like the reason you offered your resignation was even
though you believe you've done nothing wrong, you thought I
can't win a battle against three people saying the opposite, right.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, exactly, And I didn't want to cause a distraction
to the party. And you know, I do have some principles.
So I made the call or that I would resign
based on what I was presented with, which soon became
apparent that that wasn't the situation.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Who led you to believe that there was a formal complaint.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, the only time I ever got to talk to
the Department of Internal Affairs, who were initially involved in
looking at the allegation, there was only one meeting. There
never came to me prior to that and actually asked
me what I thought had gone on and anything like that.
But in the meeting was when they had this is

(01:21):
literally an aw after meeting the app that meeting with them,
I then offered by resignation because I said, to how
staff people look, three people, I can't win one against
three on that basis. I'm resigning.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Okay, did the Prime Minister's office ever tell you there
wasn't a formal complaint and there wasn't any corroboration.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
No, And of course the operating on the same information
as I had, So you know, we all came to
the I think, to the same conclusion, and I came
to the feed that I wanted to resign, and I
offered the resignation. But I think if everyone had the
same information that we now know, it might have been
quite a different outcome.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now though, Andrew, I mean, what makes it suspicious to
me is that the Prime Minister then had an interview
with Mike Hosking the following week and was asked repeatedly
whether he would have sacked you had you not resigned,
and he refused to actually say that for about three minutes,
which suggests he knew that there was no formal complaint.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
No, I don't think that's correct either. I think he
was acting. I offered my resignation, he accepted it, and
he made a decision on my offer, and rightly or wrongly,
I shouldn't have offered that resignation if I'd known what
was the situation at the time, if I'd known what

(02:42):
I know now, I wouldn't have offered it. So I
think he was trying to look after me. I don't
blame the Prime Minister. I don't blame on his staff.
I think the issue is that we were all working
off the same information, some of which was incorrect.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah, Now, is this a political stitch up from the
other side, given that Labor found out about this pretty quickly?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, well, it certainly got leaped as I understand, to
Labor pretty quickly, and that obviously had a bit of
a bearing on the decision making process. But you know,
that's politics. As you know, that we all acted in
a sort of a weird environment. But you know that
that wasn't one of the decision That wasn't a key

(03:26):
determined in my decision making. It was the fact that
someone said that all three corroborated the allegation, and that
wasn't the case.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
So what is it that you want? Look, I.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Would obviously love to be a minister minister and you
serve at the pleasure of prime minister. But the main
thing for me is I want people to know that
if I had known what I knew now, I wouldn't
have resigned. I shouldn't have resigned, but I did. I
did it in a principal manner, and now that other

(04:00):
information has come to light, I just want people to
know what the real situation is. And you know, you
spend your lifetime trying to build up a reputation and
to see it taken down in a six minute meeting,
which is how long the meeting was, it's pretty devastating.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Did the DIA stit you up? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Look, I don't think they conduct themselves with sufficient professionalism
to get to the right outcome and the right information.
The information that led me to start pursuing this course
even became available on the morning of my resignation when
I rang the person the mail who I put my

(04:42):
hand on in an encouraging way. He told me when
I rang him that he had not made the allegation,
which was a stabbing sort of revelation just before I'm
going out to say that I'm going to resign as
a minister becauxcep to. Then I assumed, in thought and
been led to believe that he was the complainant, and

(05:02):
he told me quite clearly he wasn't the complainant and
wouldn't have complained, which was a stepping statement to make.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, listen, Andrew, good on you for doing this. Takes
a bit of courage to do it, so I hope,
I hope you do manage to clear your name. That's
Andrew Bailey National Amped. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen
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