Prime Minister Chris Hipkins with China's Premier Li Qiang. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Analysis - Wrapping up a series of meetings with the three most powerful political figures in China should have been the only thing Chris Hipkins was talking about while in the diplomatic spotlight in Beijing. Yet once again, he is facing questions about one of his ministers hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
For a prime minister only months into the job, Hipkins is having bad run with his colleagues: one minister sacked, one defecting to the Māori Party, one allowed to resign, one hauled before Parliament's Privileges Committee and now questions over Kiri Allan's management of staff in her ministerial office. Many of the events leading to demise of two of these ministers happened under Dame Jacinda Ardern, but Hipkins has been left to carry the can.
And this is not the first time Allan has landed in trouble. She had to apologise for overstepping the ministerial mark during a farewell at RNZ, and more recently mishandled conflicts of interest involving former Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon.
The Stuff story that broke yesterday should be kept in perspective; it happened more than a year ago, there have been no formal complaints and that particular situation appears to have been resolved. But if it is only one example of a broader pattern of behaviour - that is a problem for her and for Hipkins.
The prime minister will well remember initially giving Stuart Nash and then Michael Wood the benefit of the doubt, but the ensuing weeks - in both cases - would become rolling mauls of disaster for all involved, ending two Cabinet careers and inflicting serious political damage on the government.
He was stepping carefully when asked if he was worried about the risk of the situation with Allan going the same way.
"No, as I've indicated, Kiri is currently taking a little bit of time away from work for a variety of personal reasons, I absolutely respect that.
"I actually encourage ministers if they do find that they need to take some time off, to do so. The fact that these issues have arisen during the time that Kiri is off doesn't mean she should rush back to work, if she's not ready to do that."
However, this is the last thing he needed fresh from meetings at the highest level - ones fraught with risk and complexity - and he'll being getting unpleasant feelings of déjà vu being overseas when a controversy hits back in New Zealand.
He was heading to the United Kingdom for King Charles' coronation when news of Meka Whaitiri's defection broke - he was totally out of the loop in terms of what she was planning, but it landed a big bomb in the middle of one of his first major trips away as prime minister.
She announced she was quitting Labour and her ministerial position a few hours before he landed, and there began the daily roll call of questions where he knew nothing about what his former minister was doing, but as prime minister had to front the whole thing.
Hipkins is a direct guy, he usually answers questions in a pretty straightforward way, but that was not the case speaking to reporters at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing after the meeting with Xi Jinping. This seemed more like a case of trying to avoid any diplomatic faux pas, and fudge his language so as not end up a "Trudeau", while giving some details about the discussions which are of high public interest.
The exchange over Kiri Allan was quite different and felt much more like deflection.
Hipkins said "in every ministerial office, from time to time, there'll be periods of heightened tension" and when that happens, it is managed.
When asked if there had been any other concerns raised about Allan's conduct as a minister he repeated no "formal complaints" had been raised with him, and his office would step in if there were "offices in the Beehive that come under additional pressure".
"From time to time, every minister will have a moment, they'll have periods where they're under pressure and where they, for example, may have an interaction with someone that's not at their best. That is not unusual."
He was asked again whether he had been made aware of any broader pattern of behaviour or concern about Allan's treatment of staff or officials that he would not consider acceptable.
"In a perfect world, everybody's relationships with everybody else would be perfect all of the time. We don't live in a perfect world.
"And I accept that ministers like everybody else are human beings and there'll be periods where they are under more stress. I don't catalogue instances where ministers have been under pressure, we work to resolve issues where they arise."
The trip to China has not been spectacular, but that's probably a good thing.
Hipkins did what he came to China to do, concluding what the government will see as a successful mission within the bilateral relationship. Ironically, his foray into commenting on other leaders' outbursts and disagreeing with US President's Joe Biden view of Xi as a dictator helped paved the way. However there remain several gnarly areas of disagreement between the two countries, and not all back home are happy with the lack of emphasis given to human rights, and the warm words exchanged about the state of the relationship.
Next stop Shanghai - a day-and-a-half to go and Hipkins and the delegation will be winging their way back to New Zealand.
