Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, with Immigration NZ boss Greg Patchell, announcing his decision to deport Czech drug dealer Karel Sroubek. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, with Immigration NZ boss Greg Patchell, announcing his decision to deport Czech drug dealer Karel Sroubek. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Today is not the first time the resignation of Iain Lees-Galloway has been in the news.
The now ex-Cabinet minister has today "paid the ultimate price" for his extramarital affair with a staffer, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
This morning, Ardern sacked him from Cabinet – stripping him ofall his portfolio positions.
Lees-Galloway will remain an MP, but will not stand for re-election in September.
That makes the race for the Palmerston North seat, which features 18-year-old National Party candidate William Wood, much more interesting.
Ardern's press conference has again catapulted the former Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety into the limelight, but this is not the first time Lees-Galloway – known to some around the halls of power as the notorious ILG – has hit the headlines for the wrong reason.
The then-Immigration Minister was put under enormous pressure in 2018 over the Karel Sroubek saga.
Lees-Galloway initially decided not to deport Sroubek – also known as Jan Antolik – despite the fact he had gang affiliations.
Sroubek was also a convicted drug smuggler, serving a more-than-five-year prison sentence in New Zealand for the importing of MDMA.
After an enormous amount of pressure, Lees-Galloway had the process reviewed and then issued Sroubek a new deportation liability notice.
His reasons for deporting Sroubek were just as valid as when he had had initially decided not to deport him.
Then-Opposition leader Simon Bridges called for Lees-Galloway's resignation.
"He just hasn't done his job, he hasn't exercised the judgement, the acumen that it seems to me any competent minister would in this case," Bridges said at the time.
"He needs to go."
This was after he admitted he didn't read Sroubek's whole file.
"I read various aspects of the full file," he told Parliament during questioning.
"I didn't rely solely on the summary. This is the usual process for these decisions. I took my time."
The saga continued to unfold up to the end of December 2018 but lost steam over the Christmas break.
At the time, Ardern was asked on multiple occasions if Lees-Galloway should resign – each time she said no and maintained confidence in him as a minister.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern leaving her press conference after announcing she has sacked Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But his last three years as a Cabinet minister has not been all bad.
In fact, Ardern paid tribute to the work he has done over the past three years in a number of portfolios.
"There are [things] that will happen this week, as a result of the minister's work."
These include the passing of the Pay Equity legislation – a law which aims to eliminate and prevent discrimination on the basis of gender in the workplace.
Ardern said he had made workplace reforms that "will make a difference to the lives of workers".
She said many workers across the country get morning tea breaks as a result of the work done by Lees-Galloway in his capacity as Minister for Workplace Relations.
Lees-Galloway's sacking puts the race for his Palmerston North seat into hot contention.
Lees-Galloway, who entered Parliament in 2008, won the seat in 2017 by roughly 6000 votes – but the party vote margin is much slimmer.
Last election, Labour won 14,648 votes compared with National's 14,276.
This public scandal may rub off on whoever the new Labour candidate is, boosting the chances of the 18-year old National challenger William Wood.
Labour Party President Claire Szarbo said: "The Labour Party will be moving swiftly to select a new candidate in Palmerston North. We will open nominations shortly and aim to select a candidate as soon as possible."
