Barry Soper: No wonder last four Fridays have been black for Government

COMMENT: For most of us Fridays are the best day of the week: the weekend's around the corner, there are usually a few beers after work and you know you're going to get a sleep in the next day, which helps you cope with feeling a little buggered at week's end.

That's the case for most of us but for the Government the last four Fridays have been black but much of it's been by design.

The first one saw the then Minister for Open Government Clare Curran showing that she had no idea of what her portfolio was all about. Jacinda Ardern stripped her of that portfolio along with a few others, but let her stay on as a minister outside of Cabinet with Broadcasting and Communications - big mistake.

The second Friday saw her dealing with another "staffing matter." Her Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri apparently got into a shoving match with a new staff member and has been on holiday on full pay ever since - while the incident's been shelved with yet another inquiry. Perhaps the finding of that is scheduled for this coming Friday and it's expected Ardern will have to explain why her minister, who goes through staff like a dose of Epsom salts, is being kept on.

On the third Friday Curran did to herself what Ardern should have done to her months ago, she fell on her sword. The pressure had become intolerable, she told us. The pressure was of course all of her own making.

Just when we thought we'd heard the last of this petulant politician, Friday number four is upon us, and she's back in the news after a hundred grand's coughed up to the multi-millionaire she offered the job of Chief Technology Officer to when she was Digital Services Minister. The only digit obvious to Derek Handley was the bird, given to him by Curran's colleagues because in reality they were baffled about what he'd actually do.

So by week's end you could be forgiven for thinking the Government was falling apart at the seams, but yesterday in Auckland the leaders of the three coalition parties got together for a kumbaya, to convince us that they have now embarked on a unified direction, setting priorities and objectives in a plan that they'll stick to like preachers to the Bible.

Ardern's got just one more Friday to endure before she heads off to New York, where for a week she'll be fawned over by the international media. There'll be few diary hitches during the week, like there were last week with cancelled media appointments, the engagements in the Big Apple are locked in.

So just one more Friday to go with a few issues still bubbling away, Whaitiri is one of course and Labour's flagship industrial relations policy is another for New Zealand First.

Winston Peters is back in the Prime Minister's seat next week...