Prime Minister John Key has announced he has accepted the resignation of Maurice Williamson as a minister.
Mr Williamson's political future has been under threat since reports emerged that he contacted police over domestic violence charges laid against Chinese businessman Donghua Liu.
High level discussions took place on Thursday morning and Mr Key issued a statement about 11am saying the Government minister would step down.
The Prime Minister said he'd become aware that Mr Williamson contacted police some time ago about the investigation into Mr Liu.
Mr Key said Mr Williamson has assured him he did not intend to influence the police investigation. However, he said, it was a significant error of judgement and had the potential to bring the independence of the police into question.