New Zealand: Justice Minister Resigns Over Traffic Collision

Facts

• New Zealand's Justice Minister Kiri Allen resigned on Monday, after being charged with drunken driving and refusing to accompany a police officer after she crashed into a parked car.¹
• Allen's small white car reportedly collided with a black coupé utility in an upmarket Wellington street on Sunday — she drove around a bend, hitting the vehicle and leaving dents, bumper damage, and two flat tires.²
• The member of Parliament was detained at a police station for roughly four hours, after failing an alcohol breath test following the incident. She was handed an infringement notice and has been summoned to appear in court at a later date.³
• Allan had returned to her full ministerial duties last week after taking a few days of mental health leave — partly due to a relationship break-up — and another two weeks off during Parliament's recess.⁴
• She is the fourth minister from PM Chris Hipkins' cabinet to leave since March, amid a string of missteps and scandals ahead of the October elections.⁵
• In the meantime, Police Minister Ginny Andersen has taken over the justice portfolio, while Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson is set to take up Allan's role overseeing the cyclone recovery of the Tairāwhiti region.⁶

Sources: ¹FOX News, ²Stuff, ³Guardian, ⁴RNZ, ⁵BBC News, and ⁶NZ Herald.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by The Spinoff. While her actions are indefensible, one cannot analyze the rise and fall of Kiri Allan without highlighting that this latest incident wraps up a period of extreme emotional anguish for the Māori lawyer, who has had a meteoric rise to top-level posts since she first campaigned for Parliament in 2017. She has also courageously beat stage three cervical cancer, but is clearly still facing struggles in her personal life.
• Right narrative, as provided by Democracy Project. The unprecedented downfall of a Justice Minister cannot be fully understood in isolation from other recent scandals surrounding this government — a cabinet member has resigned every seven weeks since Hipkins took office. Hipkins has failed to do the right thing, even though red flags about Kiri Allan's integrity and mental health were raised multiple times in the past. There is no doubt these failings will be reflecting in the upcoming elections.

Predictions