harassment allegations. 2017 – June: National MP Todd Barclay is accused of making a clandestine recording of Glenys Dickson, one of his staff, and offering her a hush payment from former Prime Minister John Key's leader's budget. Upon the incident becoming public, Barclay chose to retire from Parliament. July: Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei reveals that she had at one time committed benefit fraud during the 1990s. 2018 – August: Minister of Broadcasting, Communications, and Digital Media Clare Curran is dismissed from cabinet after a series of incidents involving secret meetings between herself and Radio New Zealand broadcaster and senior manager Carol Hirschfeld and tech entrepreneur Derek Handley. She resigned as a minister the following month. October: After a two-month investigation into leaks of information relating to the expenses of National Party leader Simon Bridges, Bridges announced that former Minister of Customs Jami-Lee Ross was the source of the leaks. The following day Ross alleged during a live press conference that Bridges was a corrupt politician who had violated electoral law several times, including accepting an illegal NZ$100,000 donation from Chinese businessman Zhang Yikun. The National Party caucus voted to expel Ross for disloyalty. Ross released an audio recording between himself and Bridges on Facebook. Notably, it included Bridges describing National List MP Maureen Pugh as "fucking useless". On 18 October, a news report was released, with four women accusing Ross of incoherent rages, sexual harassment, and bullying behaviour. 2019 – A high-up Labour Party staffer is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old party volunteer; Labour Party President Nigel Haworth resigns amidst this scandal. 2020s 2020 – January: The Serious Fraud Office filed criminal charges against four people in relation to an alleged NZ$100,000 donation paid into a National Party electorate bank account. Simon Bridges stated neither he nor anyone from National Party are among those who have been charged in relation to the donation allegations. The Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation on 12 March 2019, after police referred on a complaint made by Jami-Lee Ross (see above: October 2018). July: Minister of Health David Clark is demoted and then resigns as a Minister following repeated alleged breaches of COVID-19 lockdown guidelines. July: National Party MP Hamish Walker admits to leaking confidential COVID-19 patient information to the press. The information had come to him via former National Party President Michelle Boag, who had received it while acting chief executive