Rachel Smalley: Six police ministers in six years fails all of us

Opinion: For a whole bunch of reasons, I’m sorry to see Stuart Nash gone from the police portfolio.

He’s the fifth police minister in less than six years. That’s madness. Six ministers in six years fails all of us. If you’re the Police Commissioner, you must be rolling your eyes at the prospect of meeting a sixth Police Minister and talking through your issues, challenges and priorities.

Also, you may have noticed; we’ve got a few issues with crime. Stability of ministerial oversight is important. You need to develop an institutional knowledge of that sector, to support strategies and policies to counter the thugs that are coming through the front windows of dairies and to understand what’s required to counter poverty-related crime or some of the factors that fuel domestic terrorism. You don't learn this in a day.

Also, it should not be lost on us that on the day Stuart Nash revealed he’d questioned police about a gang member being given home detention for possessing illegal and unlicensed weapons and ammunition, it was also the fourth anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks – our darkest day, and the worst gun crime in New Zealand history. Nash was sent packing on the anniversary of the mosque shootings. 

I think it is important to note that Nash asked the Police Commissioner if the police would appeal the home detention sentence. There was never a direction or request. The Commissioner, Andrew Coster told Newshub last night that Nash was just “venting” his frustration about the sentencing in that phone call and, crucially, he wasn’t the Police Minister at the time.

Yes. Perception is everything. And no, Nash shouldn’t be commenting on a Judge’s decision or asking police if they were going to appeal. There are very important rules around that and they are justified. Lord knows we don’t want a Government applying pressure on police or judges. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This is not New York. Labour hasn’t been infiltrated by the Italian mafia and Nash wasn’t the police minister at the time and to be fair, it’s a question that many of us were probably asking - or should have been asking - at the time.

I am also frustrated by our belief that we cannot question our legal system. Judges sit like Gods at the top of the tree. Should they? Everyone should be open to criticism - including our legal system. Sometimes they get it wrong.

Some 16 years ago, I spent more than a week sitting in the Privy Council in London listening to five Law Lords dissect the case against convicted murderer David Bain. I reserve my public judgement on Bain’s guilt, but some of the errors and assumptions that were exposed in that inquiry at Downing Street were large enough to drive a truck through. Our justice system failed Bain spectacularly, but perhaps more importantly, it failed five members of Bain’s family who were murdered. Bain wasn’t found innocent – but he was found to have been the victim of a substantial miscarriage of justice and no one has been held accountable for the deaths of five people. We are right to question our justice system.

I would wager a bet that had the gang member who was sentenced to home detention later gone out and killed, or raped someone at gunpoint, or carried out some other heinous crime, Nash would have faced some ferocious questioning from the media.

But that’s by the by. Instead, a Judge sentenced a man to home detention. Ol’ mate got to sit at home and watch Netflix for a while, and then he was good to go back out into society again.

It is foolish to think the Police Commissioner will ever be swayed to intervene in a judicial process because a Minister has asked him to. Commissioners are no fools. They would be on the phone to the PM in a heartbeat.

Police know their place in society. Look at the pressure this Government put on the police last year to intervene in the parliamentary protest. The police stood their ground and peacefully watched on – and rightly so. The public has a right to protest – this is not Fiji or Russia– and only when it turned violent did the police intervene. Make no mistake. The Police were under pressure from Jacinda Ardern because that protest was politically damaging to her, and pictures were travelling around the world. The Police didn’t fold, though. They don't cater to politicians. 

And so here we are today. Police Minister Megan Woods. Our sixth in six years.

This is an election year. I do understand what ACT is trying to do here – call out the public service which it says is largely left-leaning, and paint a picture that the bureaucracy is captured and influenced by the Labour Government. 

I think there are actually plenty of examples that illustrate ACT’s point, but this is not one of them. No one will look at this situation and believe a gang member should receive home detention for having a stash of illegal and unlicensed guns. No one benefits from such upheaval in this portfolio.

I stand with Nash on this. He asked a question when he wasn’t Police Minister – would the Police appeal the Judge’s decision – and the speed of his dismissal sends yet more instability through our bureaucracy. There can be no winners.