Labour MP Clare Curran says she made mistakes as a Minister but they were "greatly amplified".
Earlier on Friday the Prime Minister announced she'd accepted Ms Curran's resignation as Minister on Thursday evening, the first member of her Government to resign. She will stay on as the Labour MP for Dunedin South.
Ms Curran defended her record at a press conference in Dunedin this afternoon.
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"I am like the rest of you, a human being and I can no longer endure the relentless pressure that I was under."
"I have made some mistakes, they weren't deliberate undermining of the political system but my mistakes have been greatly amplified and the pressure on me has become intolerable," Ms Curran said.
"We all bring to our jobs strengths and weaknesses, our political system should never try to carve people in the same mould."
Ms Curran said she'd worked hard on issues she believed in across her various portfolios including in public media, open government and digital media and is "deeply saddened" she can longer do that work.
She addressed questions about her personal Gmail account that had been asked by National MP Melissa Lee, saying she used her personal Gmail account for work "infrequently" and it "would have been discoverable".
"It hasn't been used to conceal anything."
Ms Curran did not take questions from reporters.
She resigned as the Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, and Associate Minister for ACC on Thursday evening.
Two weeks ago, Ms Ardern removed her from Cabinet and she resigned as Minister for Open Government and Government Digital Services over her failure to disclose a meeting she'd had in her Beehive office in relation to a vacant Government role.
The first time she came under fire as a Minister was over her failure to disclose a meeting she'd had with former Radio New Zealand executive Carol Hirschfeld, in an answer to a written parliamentary question which she later corrected.
National leader Simon Bridges says the way that the Prime Minister has dealt with Ms Curran has been "shambolic, incompetent governing".
"The Prime Minister needs to have a big share in the responsibility of this because she's been weak in her handling of it."
Newshub.
