{"id":6684,"date":"2023-07-24T07:49:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-23T19:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6684"},"modified":"2023-07-24T07:49:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-23T19:49:34","slug":"kiri-allan-charged-with-reckless-driving-and-resisting-arrest-resigns-as-justice-minister-pm-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6684","title":{"rendered":"Kiri Allan charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest, resigns as Justice Minister, PM says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says Kiri Allan has been charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest.<\/p>\n

Allan was taken into police custody on Sunday night after a car crash in Wellington and “is assisting with inquiries”.<\/p>\n

She also returned a breath test over the legal limit, Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

He said Kiri Allan has resigned as a minister.<\/p>\n

Allan did not respond to RNZ’s request for comment this morning.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the police said they received a report of a crash involving two vehicles on Evans Bay Parade in Roseneath shortly after 9pm.<\/p>\n

“One person was taken in to custody and is assisting police with inquiries into the circumstances of the crash.<\/p>\n

“The road was blocked for a short time, no injuries are reported.”<\/p>\n

RNZ has been provided photos taken last night of a Hyundai Kona – a electric car available to ministers – blocking one lane of a road.<\/p>\n

Allan\u00a0returned to her full ministerial duties on Monday last week after taking some time away from Parliament<\/a>\u00a0due in part to a relationship break-up.<\/p>\n

While she was taking a few days of mental health leave, separate allegations were\u00a0reported regarding her treatment of staff<\/a>, which she strongly denied.<\/p>\n

She then took another two weeks off over Parliament’s recess.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins\u00a0spoke to Allan on 14 July<\/a>\u00a0after returning from his trip to Europe and confirmed then she would return to work.<\/p>\n

“I’m pleased she is in a much better space after taking some time off and getting some professional support,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Mental wellbeing should never be a source of shame or embarrassment. I commend Kiri for speaking publicly about her recent struggles and I’ve been resolutely committed to supporting her through that.”<\/p>\n

Allan also issued a blanket apology to “anyone who has found my behaviour towards them unacceptable” and Hipkins said she would receive workplace coaching.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, Hipkins told reporters he considered the matter closed.<\/p>\n

“Kiri gave me some assurances that she feels well, she’s in a good space to come back to work, and certainly the conversations I’ve had with her over the last week or so, the last few days, give me confidence in that.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Allan acknowledged she had gone through “a bit of a rough time”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve struggled with my mental health for a good part of my adult life. That’s something I try not to shy away from.”<\/p>\n

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

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says Kiri Allan has been charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest. Allan was taken into police custody on Sunday night after a car crash in Wellington and “is assisting with inquiries”. She also returned a breath test over the legal limit, Hipkins said. He said Kiri Allan has resigned as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684","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=6684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6686,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions\/6686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}