Labour MP Kiri Allan's taking more time out from Parliament after allegations she mistreated staff, but there's confusion about how long she'll be away.
The saga is the latest in a string of ministerial mishaps which Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to mop up.
But he says New Zealanders can have confidence in his Cabinet.
Stuart Nash - sacked.
Meka Whaitiri - abandoned ship.
Michael Wood - forced to stand down.
Jan Tinetti - apologised for negligence.
It's the makings of a ministerial migraine. And now Kiri Allan is facing questions about her managerial style.
"Yes," Hipkins said on Monday when asked if the public have confidence in his Cabinet.
It was last week revealed two senior public servants had raised concerns about staff in Allan's office more than a year ago. And an anonymous public servant told Stuff Allan was "very aggressive".
Hipkins is still refusing to say whether any of his senior ministers had also raised concerns.
"The feedback that I've had from the senior levels of the public service is that they, the relevant chief executives, are satisfied that any issues that were raised informally were resolved at the time," Hipkins said at Monday's post-Cabinet press conference.
And he is kicking the conversation with Allan to touch.
"I've indicated to Kiri that we'll have a catch-up when we get back from Europe which will be in a couple of weeks' time. I've suggested to her that she take a couple of weeks off," Hipkins said.
Hipkins was then questioned by journalists about whether it was mental health leave. Allan tweeted that it wasn't, that instead, she was taking a couple of days over the school holidays to look after her kid.
She asked that people stop conflating her mental health with these allegations.
"There has been a change in culture around this place which in my mind is a good thing. Things that didn't get talked about now get talked about," Hipkins said.
The Prime Minister said the Allan allegations are a sign of the changing times.
"Parliament as a workplace did need to change and the fact the threshold is now higher is a good thing," he said.
What isn't a good thing is one of your MPs stumbling into a gang meeting. Lifetime Mongrel Mob member Harry Tam has been encouraging hard-to-reach people to enrol, saying he'll be voting Labour and Greens.
Labour MP Ingrid Leary gatecrashed one of his meetings.
Hipkins said he understood it was due to "a bit of a case of miscommunication".
"She thought she was going to a meeting organised by the Electoral Commission," he explained.
"I think it would be pretty obvious that you might want to exit stage-left when you walked in the room and found out there were a lot of gang members there," National leader Christopher Luxon said.
"All I'll say is turkeys don't vote for Christmas and obviously Harry Tam is voting for Labour and the Greens. That is a big endorsement of Labour's soft-on-crime policy."
Hipkins however said the Government has changed the law to give Police more powers to crack down on gangs.
Talking about cracking down on gangs is probably a respite for the Prime Minister from talking about his ministers.
