Health Minister David Clark has been stripped of his associate finance role - sidelining him from key budget decisions - over lockdown breaches.
However, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern didn't accept his resignation, saying the pandemic response needed continuity in such an important health role.
She also demoted Clark to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings from his 10th position.
Ardern said she would have sacked Clark in normal times, but didn't do so because the nation couldn't afford "massive disruption in the health sector or to our response."
Clark had already been censured for driving to a nearby park to go for a bike ride and today said he had also taken his family out for a 20km drive to go for a beach walk.
Losing the finance role means Clark won't take part in the key decisions Finance Minister Grant Robertson and his other associates - David Parker, Shane Jones and James Shaw - will make in directing the medium-term fiscal response to the pandemic.
Clark's associate finance delegations included helping Robertson on appropriations for the finance vote and assisting with work on budgets and fiscal management.
He also held a key role in decisions on overseas investment applications, took the day-to-day responsibilities for the Government's shareholding in Crown Research Institutes and took the finance minister's role in relation to community trusts and sport and recreation appropriations.
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Hey Mayor Boult, how come you're not labeling this guy an idiot? How come you're not screaming hysterically "People are going to die...people are going to die". You've also been strangely silent on the police officer caught hunting deer recently. Why would that be? A bit hypocritical to remain silent about Clarke and the police officer while crying to the press about a bunch of Kids playing frisbee in the park don't you think? I think the public has done an outstanding job taking the lockdown seriously. The problem isn't with the people, its with the idiots setting policy. I hope politicians like Boult think twice before they decide to label a member of the public and idiot.