Who would want to be Andrew Bayly today? 

The disgraced, now former minister, resigned because he touched a staff member during what he’s describing as an “animated discussion”.   

And now his political career is toast. As it should be, because in 2025, you just don’t touch people in the workplace.  

You don't touch people in the workplace when you’re happy with them, and you certainly don't touch people in the workplace when you’re angry with them. You just don’t do it.   

He’s staying on as the MP for Port Waikato, but he’ll be gone by the next election. National won’t want a bar of him.  

Some will think there's nothing wrong with touching someone on the arm. What's so bad about that?  

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with that. When you touch someone on the arm during a so-called “animated discussion", that’s intimidating behaviour. That’s threatening. In some circumstances, it could be considered assault.  

So you just don’t do it. But he did and he’s gone. Not completely —he’s lurking in the backbenches— but quite a downfall.   

And you might think he had it coming anyway after that incident at the vineyard where he called one of the workers a loser for still being at work after hours.  

So he’s a bit free-and-loose on it.  

And that could be a generational thing as much as anything. Because I know even in the course of my career, how much things have changed when it comes to what is and isn't acceptable in the workplace.  

I think, having started my working life in a newspaper newsroom, I’m probably a bit more lenient in my thinking.  

I certainly know that when I came back to the media after being away from newsrooms for about 14 years, I noticed how different it was, and the media certainly isn't as brutal as it used to be.  

This is in terms of people being treated with respect, and I think it's brilliant.  

I remember my first newspaper boss was what we probably called a “colourful character” back in those days.  

He called me boy. He called all the other blokes boy. He even called the women working there boy.  

Andrew Bayly is in his early-60s. So he’s from an era where people really did speak their mind the workplace, especially if they were under pressure.  

Just as Andrew Bayly and every other cabinet minister is under pressure. Because, with our three-year election cycle, this is the year of delivery for any government.  

The second year of your three-year term, time for some results. And Bayly said as much yesterday, talking about his eagerness for progress and change in his portfolio areas.  

And I know as much as anyone that working with people can be frustrating at times. That’s because we’re all different.  

But that is never an excuse for being a bully. For losing your rag. But especially it is never an excuse for grabbing someone’s arm during an “animated discussion”.  

Remembering too that, in recent years, Parliament has been exposed for bullying behaviour.  

Which is what Andrew Bayly was doing when he grabbed that staff member’s arm last week. And I don't feel sorry for him at all.    

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