Minister Andrew Bayly has had a rollercoaster year, from legislative agenda progress to a ministerial visit blunder. He spoke with Tom Raynel about his year gone by, and what 2025 has in store. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell
Minister Andrew Bayly has had a rollercoaster year, from legislative agenda progress to a ministerial visit blunder. He spoke with Tom Raynel about his year gone by, and what 2025 has in store. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell
It’s now been 10 years since Minister Andrew Bayly was elected to the New Zealand Parliament, and a lot can happen in a decade.
Since being elected in 2014 in the former Hūnua district, Bayly has traversed many roles and portfolios.
He was once the third-ranked member ofthe National Party under Judith Collins, although this was short-lived following the party’s loss at the 2020 election.
He’s previously been in charge of revenue, building and construction, but now he owns the Small Business and Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Statistics portfolios.
Bayly was also recently given the role of leading New Zealand’s anti-scam efforts.
Despite a focus on his legislative programme, 2024 was marred by a lapse in conduct from Bayly during a ministerial visit where he notoriously called someone a “loser”.
But for Bayly, he wants the focus to be on the “crucial reforms” he’s spearheading to revitalise New Zealand’s economy.
Minister Andrew Bayly is working on several legislative programmes across his portfolios to drive productivity, including reforms to the CCCFA and the Companies Act. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Companies Act changes years in the making
The coalition Government made an effort to hit the ground running, forcing through several key legislative reforms under urgency to ensure its agenda is completed.
He is also tackling some of the larger, long-standing legislative challenges he thinks will “unlock” our economy.
Reform work is under way on the Conduct of Financial Institutions Act (COFI) and the recently announced reforms to capital markets and the New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) that will allow KiwiSaver funds to be invested in unlisted assets.
But changes to two pieces of legislation could have the largest impact, the Commerce Act and the Companies Act, of which the latter hasn’t been updated in nearly 30 years.
Bayly started work on reforms to the Companies Act two years ago, with the intent to “modernise it, digitise it and simplify it”.
According to him, he already had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to change.
After engaging with industry, he got the private sector to start the work of writing the legislation and expects to introduce it early next year.
But for Bayly, the length of time to tackle serious reform is something he wishes more people understood.
“People don’t realise, just that policy time, the time to write a bill, six months on a select committee, also the process going through the House. It takes a long time.”
" That’s part of the machinery of government and what I’ve been particularly keen to do is to move as quickly as I can."
He emphasised that had he waited until the beginning of the Government’s term to start his work on the Companies Act, it would have been lucky to be finished before the next election.
Bayly has said previously that changes to the bill will include requiring directors or general partners to verify their identities by getting a form of digital ID.
Improving insolvency rules is also on Bayly’s radar, as is digitalising outdated parts of the Companies Act.
Minister Andrew Bayly attending the Manufacturing Productivity Advisory Group, one of many advisory groups established to support his connection with the industries within his portfolios. Photo / Andrew Bayly, LinkedIn
Manufacturing support
Several high-profile factories closed their doors in 2024 due to a range of factors, including product demand, high interest rates and commonly the price of energy.
The closures of Winstone Pulp, Methanex, and the North Island Mussels processing plant led to the loss of hundreds of jobs across the year, just to name a few.
Bayly said he had been in contact with all the major production businesses in New Zealand to keep a close eye on them.
He stressed while energy prices certainly added pressure to the industry, international commodity price fluctuations (particularly for pulp) and significant cost increases in labour over recent years were key factors.
However, he said while the losses were significant, he wanted to celebrate the sector as the first Minister for Manufacturing.
“It’s not reliant on one or two companies. It’s 230,000 people, it’s 10% of the economy. It underpins 60% of all our exports.”
“One lesser-known fact is that of all the R&D in the country, 25% of it relates specifically to manufacturing. So it’s an absolute powerhouse.”
His recently established manufacturing productivity advisory group is focused on one message – doing small things brilliantly on a global scale.
One initiative to launch in March is a celebration of the sector, with Bayly using the analogy of farming and TVNZ’s Country Calendar as something to aspire to emulate.
" We want to actually start highlighting some of these fantastic businesses because we’ve got this disconnect with school children."
Bayly has tasked his advisory group to establish better connections between education providers and manufacturers, so younger generations can better understand what goes on behind the scenes.
Although there will be more to announce on the subject in 2025.
Andrew Bayly apologised to a worker for telling him to "f*** off" and calling him a loser. Cartoon / Rod Emmerson
Regrettable to say the least
As for whether he feels he’d achieved everything he wanted to both professionally and personally this year, Bayly said he was certainly happy with the work programme underway.
He gave credit to his officials, joking " They tell me they’re up to here."
For him, he wants to keep the momentum up, " We’ve made great progress and it’s great to be working in a government that’s prepared to make changes and take courageous calls about it."
One thing Bayly was not keen to reminisce about was his serious slip-up during a ministerial visit back in October.
On that visit, the minister told a worker to “take some wine and f*** off home”.
The complainant also said Bayly repeatedly called him a “loser”.
Reflecting on the time, Bayly re-acknowledged there was never any ill intent, but said it was important to keep moving forward as a minister regardless of setbacks.
As for how he intends to spend the summer break, he’s returning to tradition and heading overseas.
Bayly has travelled widely, including the North Pole, Mongolia and Jordan, all with his sons.
They are especially important to Bayly, describing them as a " lovely transition from them being my sons, to actually being my equals."
" Each of them, we’ve all got our special memories and it’s something that we’ve done together. I feel even though I’ve been very focused on my political career, actually that family bit alongside it is also vitally important.”
" I would have hated to come out of politics whenever I finish, and go ‘gee, all I did was politics and I forgot about my family’. That’s the important part."
This summer, they’re headed to Japan.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald covering small business and retail.
