Do you remember back when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was over in China, and he said he was having such a great time that he didn’t really want to go home?

I reckon he’s wishing he was still in Beijing, with the news that Kiri Allan has resigned from Cabinet after being charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest in Wellington last night.

She was also over the legal alcohol limit. But she wasn’t over the limit enough to be charged, so she got an infringement notice.

It all started around 9 o’clock last night when the car she was driving on Evans Bay Parade in Wellington hit a parked car. Police responded, she resisted being arrested, but was taken into custody. And was released around 1am.

She’s heading home to the East Coast and she has said in a statement that she is considering her future in politics.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, quite rightly, says Kiri Allan’s actions last night were inexcusable. He says he’s told her that it’s untenable for a Justice Minister to be charged with criminal offending.

He could go further on that particular aspect, but hasn’t. But, as if being a Justice Minister and being charged with criminal offences wasn’t bad enough. We’re also talking about a Justice Minister resisting arrest. Which takes it up a notch again, doesn’t it? It’s almost another “don’t you know who I am" moment. 

So Chris Hipkins is obviously brassed off with her but he has also made mention of her mental health issues, saying that she was in a state of “extreme emotional distress” when this all happened last night.

Chris Hipkins has also said today that, after her recent mental health break, he thought she was okay to start back at work.

He says he believed she was okay and that he had been assured by Kiri Allan herself that she was okay and ready to be back at Parliament.

Chris Hipkins says: “Last night’s incident is evidence there are not always quick fixes when it comes to mental health, and the best thing for Kiri right now is to focus on her whanau and her wellbeing away from Parliament.

“I don’t provide this detail to diminish her actions - they were indefensible - but to provide context for the distressed circumstances she found herself in when the incident occurred.”

Kiri Allan has also said in a statement that, over recent weeks she's faced a number of personal difficulties.

"I took time off to address those and believed I was okay to juggle those challenges with the pressure of being a Minister. My actions yesterday show I wasn’t okay and I’ve let myself and my colleagues down.”

Already, the vultures are circling. Not the politicians themselves. Because the people who have worked with Kiri Allan - her government colleagues as well as opposition MPs - will have some compassion because they know better than any of us what it’s like to be an MP and to work at Parliament.

ACT leader David Seymour, for example, spoke very kindly about Kiri Allan on Newstalk ZB this morning, saying that politicians are people too and she has obviously had a lot to deal with personally.

Because it’s not just her mental health. Let’s not forget she had that battle with cancer not that long ago, as well.

So I thought David Seymour was pretty gracious. But he also made a very good point about Chris Hipkins and whether he treated Kiri Allan fairly, by letting her return to work when she did following her mental health break.

Seymour thinks Hipkins was hamstrung by a lack of ministerial talent. And I agree.

I reckon that if Chris Hipkins felt confident he had other people to do her work, he wouldn't have allowed Kiri Allan to return to work so soon.

I’m not saying that what happened last night wouldn’t have happened if she’d been off work longer than she was. But I do think Kiri Allan, in some respects, has been let down by Chris Hipkins.