TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman has resigned from the broadcaster, saying the level of scrutiny she had faced over the past week had made her position untenable.

Sherman announced her departure in a statement posted to X on Friday, saying she accepted there was no excuse for the language she used at an after-hours function nearly a year ago.

The alleged incident involved Sherman and Stuff journalist Lloyd Burr at a pre-Budget drinks event in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’s office on May 13 last year.

Sherman alleged her comment was made in response to deeply personal and inappropriate remarks directed at her, but said that did not excuse her actions.

Willis confirmed she had hosted the function and returned to hear offensive language being used, at which point she ended the event.

Willis said the following day she checked on the welfare of the reporter at whom the language was directed, and he advised he did not want to take the matter further.

The story was broken publicly by political commentator Ani O’Brien on her Substack page.

Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking subsequently revealed TVNZ had sent a legal letter to NZME after a producer sought comment from the broadcaster about the alleged incident.

Hosking said the letter had a chilling effect and NZME made the decision not to run the story at the time.

Sherman’s troubles compounded when Speaker Gerry Brownlee suspended her from Parliament for five days after a complaint from the National Party that TVNZ staff had followed National chief whip Stuart Smith into a corridor and aggressively banged on his door for several minutes during reporting on a confidence vote in Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s leadership.

Sherman was also withdrawn from the Prime Minister’s trip to Singapore, with TVNZ replacing her with journalist Mei Heron.

Sherman was appointed TVNZ political editor in March 2024, replacing Jessica Mutch McKay.

She had previously worked across the press gallery for over a decade, including at Newshub and in Maori broadcasting.