The Prime Minister has acted swiftly to get Stuart Nash out of the police portfolio, but he’s only dealt with half the problem, writes political editor Jo Moir
Chris Hipkins says Stuart Nash has paid the price for his error of judgment when he called the Police Commissioner and urged him to appeal a court decision.
But it’s what happened next that is arguably worse.
READ MORE: * Labour and National scrap it out to do little * MP's emails show pattern of personal attacks
Unintentionally outing himself on Newstalk ZB on Wednesday morning, Nash’s first mistake was seeing no issue with calling the commissioner or discussing the details of that with a breakfast radio host.
Yet when it blew up and Nash faced a swarm of media later that morning questioning his breach of the Cabinet manual, he chose defiance over contrition.
So bad was Nash’s understanding of what is and isn’t appropriate he was unrepentant and insisted he’d done nothing wrong.
It was only later that Nash realised his mistake and offered his resignation as police minister to Hipkins, who told media he would have demoted him if he hadn't resigned first.
When Hipkins says Nash has paid the price, he’s only been punished for the first part – making the phone call – and the conflict that creates as the minister in charge of police.
By not stripping him of his other portfolios, Hipkins has done nothing to respond to Nash’s inability to identify that his actions were unwise, unprofessional, and made him unfit for any ministerial role.
If after almost six years as a minister, Nash still doesn’t know what breaching the Cabinet manual looks like how can Hipkins trust him not to do it again?
When confronted by media about his comments on breakfast radio, Nash responded saying, “I was chewing the fat with a guy who was a mate, about a decision that I thought was very bad in a circumstance that I had been involved in when I was the minister of police buying back firearms”.
That circumstance was related to an illegal firearms case that had gone before the courts and resulted in home detention, according to Nash.
Hipkins may find himself rethinking his initial response, especially if the issue continues to bubble away in the coming days and weeks.
During his first stint as police minister before Poto Williams took over the role in November 2020, Nash had warned anyone in possession of illegal firearms that they faced five years in jail. Nash thought the court judgment was inadequate.
He called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to say, “Surely you are going to appeal?”.
Nash wasn’t the minister in charge of police at the time of the call but was subsequently reappointed to the role in February this year.
While his instinct is to fight back and defend, rather than take time to reflect and consider, Nash has raised serious questions about what he understands to be acceptable for a cabinet minister.
Nash remains Economic Development, Forestry and Oceans and Fisheries Minister for now.
Hipkins may find himself rethinking his initial response, especially if the issue continues to bubble away in the coming days and weeks.
He's made it incredibly clear he wants no distractions in his Government – the focus has to be the cost of living crisis and Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.
By getting rid of Nash so abruptly it sucked a lot of the oxygen out of it for the Opposition but doesn’t kill it completely.
While it was the ACT Party who brought the interview to the public's attention and will continue to hammer the case for Nash to be dropped from Cabinet altogether, National will need to tread a bit more carefully.
It was only five months ago when National leader Christopher Luxon took the agriculture portfolio off Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger after her long-standing conflict of interest was revealed.
Kuriger’s son pled guilty in 2020 to animal cruelty charges that resulted in 23 dairy cows being euthanised.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried to break with the profile of police ministers past when she put Williams in the job.
Emails released to Newsroom in December revealed a pattern of personal attacks on Ministry for Primary Industries’ officials by Kuriger, which she didn't register as a conflict of interest or deem inappropriate.
At the time Luxon said she would never be agriculture minister in his government, but he’s since given her the conservation portfolio, and it’s understood she intends to run again for her seat – the nominations for which opened this week.
Luxon will need to give some serious thought to how tough he goes on Hipkins keeping Nash in other roles, when Kuriger’s lapse of judgment was just as serious and over a more prolonged period.
Megan Woods is Acting Police Minister while Hipkins works out his next steps but is unlikely to keep it in the long term.
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tried to break with the profile of police ministers past when she put Williams in the job.
She opted for someone who had worked in the family violence space and had a softly-softly approach with a focus on the culture of the police force.
That failed and Hipkins got brought in by Ardern to sort things out as ram raids and retail crime reached alarming new levels.
It was a return to the old when Hipkins became Prime Minister and gave Nash the job back – a no-nonsense guy from the regions who says it like it is.
If Hipkins is looking to recreate that but with less of the bluster, then Wairarapa MP and Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty would make sense.
A more significant reshuffle may come yet if Hipkins realises Nash is an ongoing distraction in the days ahead.
