TL;DR: Justice Minister Kiri Allan resigned this morning after crashing her car in Wellington last night. She returned a breath test over the legal limit, but only high enough for an infringement notice. The bigger problem was she was arrested and taken into custody after resisting arrest.
PM Chris Hipkins announced this morning she had been charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest. He said she had decided to resign immediately and return home to consider her future in politics.
This is catastrophic for Allan and awful for the Labour Government’s re-election prospects, for now. Others are calling it a final nail in the Government’s coffin. But there are 88 days before the election and memories are not what they used to be.
News elsewhere in the political economy this morning
ACT announced a policy to use public-private partnerships and tolling to build new roads, and to toll existing roads to pay for maintenance and expansion.
Real estate agents are gearing up for a surge in demand for high-end homes if National-ACT win and remove the current ban on non-residents buying existing homes. One Roof (Catherine Masters)
India, which provides 40% of global rice exports, banned exports of non-Basmati rice over the weekend because bad weather had hit harvests and was pushing up prices. ABC Australia.
Paying subscribers can see more detail on these and other news items on the political economy of housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa below the paywall fold here and in the podcast above. Join us.
Six newsey things this morning
Justice Minister Kiri Allan is charged and resigns
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Kākā by Bernard Hickey to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
