{"id":5980,"date":"2023-06-28T17:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T05:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5980"},"modified":"2023-06-28T17:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T05:49:17","slug":"doc-boss-confirms-poor-relationships-in-minister-kiri-allans-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=5980","title":{"rendered":"DOC boss confirms poor relationships in Minister Kiri Allan’s office"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the Department of Conservation (DOC) has confirmed a staffer stopped working in Minister Kiri Allan’s office early because of a bad working relationship.<\/p>\n

The events took place more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, DOC Director-General Penny Nelson said she became aware of the problem, and sought support from Ministerial Services.<\/p>\n

“I became aware that concerns had been raised about the working relationships with the minister in the office, and that it was not running as smoothly as it might,” she said.<\/p>\n

“One person chose to end their secondment early due to the working relationships in the office.<\/p>\n

“Accordingly, I had discussions with my colleagues, including from Internal Affairs which manages Ministerial Services, regarding support in the office.<\/p>\n

“No further concerns were subsequently brought to my attention, and I understand relationships improved.”<\/p>\n

Nelson directed any further questions to the Department of Internal Affairs. RNZ has sought comment from DIA.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said there had been no formal complaints raised, and no further issues after work was done to improve the situation.<\/p>\n

“Parliament is a high-pressure environment and Minister Allan is passionate about her work, however this has never led to any formal complaints and past issues have been resolved without the need for significant escalation,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Allan was shifted from conservation to take up the justice portfolio in June last year.<\/p>\n

Reporting on the matter on Wednesday afternoon, news outlet\u00a0Stuff said<\/a>\u00a0other senior public servants had also voiced concerns Allan’s treatment of staff.<\/p>\n

She has been on leave from Parliament this week, and\u00a0posted on social media<\/a>\u00a0today saying she has been struggling with mental health.<\/p>\n

“Real talk,” she started. “A part of being a politician is the fact our lives are public. When things go well, we celebrate them, when they don’t, it’s easy to hide away.<\/p>\n

“Mental health is something we typically shout about from the roof tops during mental health awareness week. But a part of being a public figure is also to be honest with the public about the tough times too – because if sharing my story can help one other, then I’m glad to have shared.”<\/p>\n

She said she had been struggling with mental health for the past few weeks, triggered by personal circumstances “as well as other external things” including the recent cyclone.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes things accumulate, and I hit a wall a few weeks ago. I kept going, showing up to events, smiling, giving speeches. But about a week ago, I had to be pretty honest with myself.”<\/p>\n

She said it had been “bloody hard” but she had “reached out” to colleagues, friends and family, and had needed time to get some help and get back on track.<\/p>\n

“It felt a little embarrassing admitting I wasn’t doing okay. But what followed was an overwhelming response of aroha.”<\/p>\n

She was now feeling a lot better and would be back at work tomorrow, she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

VIA RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of the Department of Conservation (DOC) has confirmed a staffer stopped working in Minister Kiri Allan’s office early because of a bad working relationship. The events took place more than a year ago. In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, DOC Director-General Penny Nelson said she became aware of the problem, and sought support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5982,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5980\/revisions\/5982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}