Chris Luxon is defending his Small Business Minister for not alerting him sooner over a complaint from a member of the public. 

Andrew Bayly's apologised, after a worker claimed he'd told him to - 'Go home, take some wine, and F off'  and later made the  'L' sign on his forehead. 

The Prime Minister says he received the complainant's letter on Thursday, but isn't necessarily surprised he didn't hear about it before. 

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the media's going too hard in criticising Minister Bayly.

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