Curran demoted after a further secret meeting

Stuff reports the PM:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has removed Clare Curran from Cabinet and accepted her offer to resign her Government Digital Services portfolio and Open Government responsibilities, following a second failure to properly declare a meeting.

Dr Megan Woods will take over as Minister of Government Digital Services and Ms Curran’s delegated responsibilities in relation to Open Government will revert to Chris Hipkins, as Minister for State Services. Minister Curran will retain her responsibilities as Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, and as Associate Minister for ACC, but will now sit outside Cabinet.

So covering up secret meetings is okay for a Minister outside Cabinet, just not inside Cabinet. That’s mighty low standards. A meaningful sanction would be removal from the Ministry.

The undisclosed meeting was just as improper as the Hirschfeld one, namely:

• It was a conflict of interest as Derek Handley was an applicant for the CTO job that the Minister appoints
• The meeting was not in the Minister’s diary
• The meeting was kept a secret from the Minister’s own staff and officials
• The meeting was not disclosed to a written parliamentary question

If that is not enough to be removed from the ministry, what is?