By JOHN ARMSTRONG
political editor
The Minister of Commerce, Paul Swain, offered to resign from the cabinet because of the lengthy time he is taking to recover from major bowel surgery.
The offer - made several weeks ago - was rejected by the Prime Minister. Helen Clark has told him not to worry about being absent from the Beehive and to concentrate on making a full recovery.
Mr Swain was rushed to hospital with a perforated bowel just before Christmas. He spent the first two months of the year recuperating after major surgery.
He is scheduled to have more corrective surgery after Easter and is not expected to be working full time until the end of June, when he is expected to have made a full recovery.
In the past few weeks he has attended cabinet meetings, but a major chunk of his portfolio responsibilities have been looked after by the Minister of Education, Trevor Mallard.
Mr Swain's commerce portfolio has a big workload. It includes tariff policy, the inquiry into the telecommunications industry, the revamp of the Commerce Act, cellphone spectrum auctions, the rewriting of the takeovers code plus e-commerce policy.
He also holds associate minister responsibilities covering business law and the inquiry into the deregulated electricity market.
"I thought it was only fair to give the Prime Minister the option given the time involved," Mr Swain said yesterday.
"I was absolutely delighted she decided not to accept. Helen has been phenomenally supportive. She said: 'Anyone can get crook. Get right again and in the not-too-distant future all this will be behind you'."
Helen Clark said Mr Swain had done the honourable thing, offering his resignation because he felt "terrible" about letting down the Labour team.
She has told him to focus on getting well and not to overstress himself as worry could impede his recovery.
Mr Swain's offer to resign was not risk-free. The Labour caucus elects its cabinet ministers and Mr Swain could not have relied on re-securing a slot at a later date.
Swain's offer to quit rejected
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