Bayly was, in his own words, “impatient” to drive change.
He resigned as a minister after being “overbearing” towards a staffer, touching their shoulder during an “animated” discussion.
The question now is, will his successor Scott Simpson pick up the mantle with as much vigour? Or will the ambitious reform programme Bayly was championing fall by the wayside?
It is not uncommon for ministerial portfolios to change hands. It happens all the time, and the wheels of Government keep churning.
The difference here is that Bayly was really driving his own agenda. A former merchant banker, he was more active in his commerce and consumer affairs portfolio than many of his predecessors.
It’s hard to know whether he was going to successfully achieve what he aimed for.
He struggled to effectively hold former Finance Minister Grant Robertson to account as his counterpart when National was in Opposition during the pandemic and he didn’t make it to Cabinet when the party came into Government.
It’s also hard to know whether Simpson, who has been an MP since 2011, but has struggled to move up the ranks, will take a similar approach to Bayly.
But there will undoubtedly be some in the financial services sector scratching their heads over what will come of the various reviews and reforms Bayly started.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has just finished consulting on proposed amendments to the Commerce Act 1986.
It’s looking into cracking down on “creeping acquisitions” – companies making small acquisitions that don’t affect the make-up of the market they operate in on their own, but cumulatively reduce competition.
Coinciding with this, Bayly late last year appointed a former Commerce Commission chairwoman to review the competition watchdog’s organisational capacity and performance.
A fortnight ago, shortly after being given the ACC portfolio, Bayly commissioned consultants to review the way the state injury insurer operates (its claims handling, why it’s taking claimants longer to get rehabilitated, etc), and the way it manages its $50 billion investment portfolio.
ACC has made headlines recently, as levies are rising to help plug the insurer’s whopping $7.2b deficit.
In a separate piece of work, Bayly mid-last year unveiled plans to modernise the Companies Act 1993 by, among other things, scrapping the requirement for directors to make their home addresses public, and making it harder for directors to set up new companies to defeat creditors’ interests in their old companies.
Bayly also progressed a revamp of New Zealand’s archaic insurance rules to prevent insurers from unreasonably declining claims due to policyholders honestly or accidentally failing to disclose information about themselves.
Pushing open banking, or open data, also fell under Bayly’s purview, as did work to enable KiwiSaver fund managers to invest in private assets.
There is a lot under way.
While all eyes will be on what Simpson prioritises, we might see Finance Minister Nicola Willis continue to take on work that could fall under the commerce and consumer affairs portfolio.
With the newly created “economic growth” portfolio, Willis has the bandwidth to tap into several areas that broadly support growth.
She’s already taken the lead, fronting the Government’s response to the Commerce Commission’s banking sector competition inquiry.
She’s also talked about being willing to provide a potential new entrant into the supermarket sector preferential regulatory treatment to help get them established and is looking at ways of improving KiwiSaver.
While Simpson might be left to do as he pleases with the complex work Bayly started, it will be Willis who fronts the stuff that makes the headlines and delivers the political wins.
Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald’s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.
