So what?

Stuff reports:

One of the Government’s new MPs shot his brother in a “traumatic accident” that caused serious injuries.

When did this happen? Since he was an MP? Since he was a candidate? In the last three years? The last five years?

It’s understood that, while a student at exclusive Wanganui Collegiate School in the 1970s, Bayly was climbing over a farm fence with a loaded shotgun.

The gun discharged, hitting Paul Bayly in the calf and causing severe damage.

So it happened over 35 years ago when he was at school. So how is this relevant today?

“It certainly hasn’t stopped his career, and he ran the New York Marathon late last year,” Andrew Bayly said.

“This is a testament to the great doctor he had at the time.”

But while doctors saved his lower leg, Paul Bayly was left with heavy scarring of his calf.

Both went on to be stars at school, with Andrew Bayly a prefect and head of boarding house, while Paul was cox of the first rowing eight.

According to his website, Andrew Bayly was an officer in the New Zealand Territorial Army and British Parachute Regiment, while Paul rose to the rank of Colonel in the Defence Force.

Both high achievers.

In 2012, inspired by the adventures of Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott, Andrew Bayly dragged a sled 112km to the South Pole.

He’s also a chartered accountant who has worked in the banking and finance industries.

Ten years ago he moved his wife and three sons from Auckland to Karaka so they “could also enjoy the same experiences I had as a little boy living in a small, rural community”.

Bayly said he had been appointed to three select committees and was too busy to discuss the accident.

Andrew is being polite. What he probably wanted to say could have involved telling the journalist to go away in direct terms.