John McLean: Bayly's Bonza Bill

A laudable legislative project

A Members’ Bill initiated National Party Member of Parliament Andrew Bayly has been randomly drawn from Parliament’s (actual) biscuit tin and will now progress through Parliament’s legislative process. Members’ Bills are pieces of proposed legislation initiated by individual MPs, rather than political parties.

Bayly’s Bill is the Crimes (Offence of Failing to Report Child Harm) Amendment Bill. The Bill, if enacted, will make it a criminal offence to fail, without a “reasonable excuse”, to report an assault on a child to the Police. Reasonable excuses include where someone fears for their, or another person’s, safety, or believes the information has already been reported by someone else.

Damien Grant: The difference between Christopher Luxon and Andrew Bayly

My first encounter with Andrew Bayly was an interview at a café at Auckland Domestic Airport. He was then shadow to Grant Robertson as Judith Collins’ Finance spokesman and, had things worked out differently, would today be finance minister.

Things turned out differently and last Thursday our paths crossed briefly outside that same café. He was chipper and ebullient, clutching a book by Rory Stewart and just as chatty as I’ve known him to be. He knew, and I did not, that there was a cloud over his career but he gave no hint of the rain that was to fall.

David Farrar: Bayly goes

The Herald reports:

Andrew Bayly will stand down as a Government minister after an “animated discussion” with a staffer, during which he “placed a hand on their upper arm, which was inappropriate”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has accepted Bayly’s resignation and said Bayly indicated to him that “his actions fell short of the expectations he sets himself”.

Andrew Bayly: Modern insurance law will protect Kiwi households

The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today.

“These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. The recent extreme weather events show just how important a well-functioning insurance system is and it’s about time we brought insurance law into the 21st century,” Mr Bayly says.