A former National Party leader says Kiri Allan has "disgraced herself" and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will need to be "Houdini" to get Labour back on track.
Justice Minister Allan was taken into police custody on Sunday night after being involved in a car crash and failing a breath test. She was charged with reckless driving and refusing to accompany a police officer.
Police said an infringement notice was also issued for excess breath alcohol between 250 and 400mcg.
Hipkins said Allan was "in a very distressed state" but her alleged actions, nonetheless, were "indefensible".
Auckland Business Chamber chief executive and former National Party leader Simon Bridges said Hipkins was right to call the alleged actions "indefensible".
"I think if the allegations have substance, it's a disgrace and Kiritapu Allan has disgraced herself," he said.
"The most serious charge here in a way, is the resisting arrest. Ordinary Kiwis have to follow the rules and here, if you expect anyone to be following the rules really scrupulously, it would be the justice minister. I think she's going to have to have a very hard look at herself and whether politics is for her."
Questions raised about PM's leadership
Since Hipkins took over as Prime Minister earlier this year, his Cabinet has been plagued by ministerial scandals. Before the allegations emerged against Allan, Stuart Nash was sacked for sharing confidential Cabinet information; Meka Whaitiri abandoned Hipkins' Labour Party for Te Pāti Māori; Michael Wood was forced to resign as a minister after failing to declare conflicts of interest; and Education Minister Jan Tinetti was ordered by the Privileges Committee to apologise to Parliament for negligence.
Political pundit Bryce Edwards, from Victoria University, told AM it's a "tragedy" what has happened to Allan and it's a terrible look for the Government.
With just 82 days until this year's election, Edwards said it's a "disaster" for Hipkins and raises questions about the Prime Minister's leadership.
"I think in retrospect, Chris Hipkins maybe has mismanaged this by getting her back to work. She obviously wanted to be back at work, so it's very hard to control a minister when they're determined to be there.
"But more questions will be asked about the pressures we put on ministers and politicians and how we deal with mental health and whether Chris Hipkins did deal with this appropriately."
Allan has recently returned to work following time off for mental health and personal reasons. Allegations also emerged previously of Allan mistreating staff in her office but no official complaint was ever laid.
Allan told AM last week she is pretty passionate and you can normally "hear me before you see me".
She added she was "stoked to be back" and looking forward to getting back to work.
At a press conference on Monday morning, the Prime Minister referenced how Allan had recently taken time off and she was "at the top of her game" at Parliament last week. But he added things can flip without warning when mental health was involved.
Hipkins said people can't form the judgement of his leadership coming into question after Allan's resignation.
"I required Kiri to take some time off. You might recall at the time she was quite resistant to that," the Prime Minister told the media.
"She came back to work after receiving counselling with very strong indications to me that she was ready to take on the job, and you would've seen last week that I had no evidence to question that. We provided additional coaching, counselling and support to her to make sure she was ready to come back to work."
Bridges, meanwhile, believes Hipkins will need to be "Houdini" to get Labour back on track.
"I sit there and I say, actually, this is a guy who… has had the most disastrous series of characters doing inexplicable and sometimes in this case, I think very serious things," Bridges told AM.
"That said, look, the election campaign is a marvellous equaliser and anything can happen on that."
'Nobody goes into public service to do a bad job' - councillor
Allan is relatively new to politics, having started as a list MP for Labour in 2017.
While Bridges said there is a lot of added pressure when people become MPs, he stressed it shouldn't minimise or diminish the seriousness of the charges.
"I think the reality is it's a big step up, suddenly the limelight is on you, there's a lot of pressure. There's also a lot of boosting, people telling you you're great because you're on your way and you have to deal with all of that," he said. "I think what's also true though, is we do have to be careful about not minimising it or diminishing actually the seriousness of this for a Minister of Justice.
"We all and Kiwis all have complex things going on in their lives but I don't know that here there is massive room for excuses."
Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley, appearing on AM's panel alongside Bridges, said she feels for Allan.
"Nobody goes into public service to do a bad job. Everybody goes into it because they want to do the best they can for their city, for their country and we've already seen the issues that she's gone through personally in the media.
"There is no diminishing when it comes to mental health. Mental health is major, it affects everybody and so for Kiri, I really felt for her and yes, she needs some support around her and I reckon people feel for her and they want to see her do well."
Bartley said it's sad Allan's resignation has been turned into politics.
"This shouldn't be seen as politics. It shouldn't be seen and discussed about the election because you're seeing someone here disintegrate.
"It's not it's not about Chris Hipkins, it's about this person."
Newshub political editor Jenna Lynch said the charges against Allan are damning.
She said since Allan was dealing with mental health issues, it's hard to say if the Prime Minister's political judgement should be questioned.
"I think… we always have to act with a bit of caution around this stuff because mental health is a spectrum, people can feel fine one day and not feel fine the next and Kiri Allen has been very open about her struggles with mental health.
"But as you said, she did come back last week. She said she loves her job. She was ready and raring to go.
"She wanted to serve the people, [but] how quickly things can change. She is now headed back to the bay to reconsider her political future after what I'm sure was a very distressing night."
