It’s been three strikes and Stuart Nash remains a Cabinet minister - only just, after a third incident of inappropriate conduct was discovered by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
Nash, who this week resigned as Police Minister, is now on a final warning and has been demoted to the lowest Cabinet ranking of 20th.
“My confidence has been dented - but not to the point where I think he should lose his job,” Hipkins told a hastily-arranged press conference at Parliament this afternoon.
Hipkins said last night he became aware of a third concerning incident involving Nash’s conduct as a Government Minister. It was in September last year when he approached a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment official about an immigration case involving a health professional.
Nash had been acting in his capacity as Napier MP at the time.
Hipkins said Nash “did not use the established process for ministers and MPs to advocate in an immigration case”.
“Having considered the thresholds used by previous Prime Ministers I have decided the appropriate penalty is to demote Stuart Nash and place him on a final warning,” Hipkins said.
This would see Nash drop from 11 to 20 on the party list.
“This demotion reflects both his poor judgment on process and his failure to alert me to these past instances.
“I have repeated that point to him and made clear that any further lapses will result in his dismissal as a minister.
“As I have said his actions reflect poor judgment, but the specifics of each incident do not warrant dismissal.”
It comes amid calls from the Opposition for Nash to be kicked out of Cabinet, after he quit as Police Minister in the fallout from an interview on Newstalk ZB earlier this week.
Nash revealed he had called his “mate” Police Commissioner Andrew Coster in 2021 - when Nash wasn’t Police Minister but still a Cabinet Minister - to question whether police were going to appeal a court decision Nash felt wasn’t severe enough.
Nash later doubled down, believing he had done nothing wrong in calling Coster or criticising the decision, despite it violating rules in the Policing Act and the Cabinet Manual, a document that governs the behaviour of ministers.
Then Newstalk ZB revealed on Thursday the Solicitor-General considered prosecuting Nash for contempt over public comments he made after the arrest of Eli Epiha in the case of the killing of Police Constable Matthew Hunt.
Hipkins said he had decided to demote Nash after considering previous instances that had led to ministers being sacked.
The PM said he had weighed Nash’s overall motivations. It was clear Nash had sought to shortcut the rules but he would not set the bar so low that any mistake would see a minister dismissed.
The third incident came about in a wide-ranging conversation with Nash about if there were any other instances he needed to be aware of.
Hipkins said in almost all cases where ministers had been dismissed in the past there was a personal connection - that was not the case in any of the instances involving Nash.
In the immigration matter, there was a processing issue and Nash’s intervention had unclogged the case but had not impacted the actual decision, Hipkins said.
Hipkins said Nash had assured him there was no personal connection to the medical professional he had sought to help.
Hipkins said Nash had assured him he had no recollection of other instances.
He said he would not tolerate future instances.
Hipkins said Megan Woods would continue as acting Police Minister. He was still considering who would fill the role permanently.
Hipkins said Nash generally spoke in a colloquial manner “that often reflects the sentiments of a significant proportion of the community, but he needs to take greater care to ensure that what he says and how he says it upholds the standards expected of a Cabinet minister.”
Hipkins said Nash said he could not recollect the latest instance, when asked if Nash had lied to him when he had previously said there were no other issues of concern around his ministerial conduct.
He had been assured there were no more previous instances of concern. “If that were to happen, I would consider any instance on its merits, and I would do the same thing. I’d consider it carefully.”
Nash has faced calls for his resignation from Cabinet after he quit as Police Minister in the fallout from an interview on Newstalk ZB earlier this week.
They began after an interview Nash did on Newstalk ZB on Wednesday morning, during which he revealed he had called his “mate” Police Commissioner Andrew Coster in 2021 - when Nash wasn’t Police Minister - to question whether police were going to appeal a court decision Nash felt wasn’t severe enough.
The case in question related to Southland farmer Christopher McKerchar, who lost his firearms licence in 2017 but did not give up his guns, magazines or ammunition as required, the Southland Times reported in 2021.
Judge Russell Walker sentenced McKerchar to four months’ home detention and discharged him from a conviction for the ammunition, with the fact his guns weren’t gang-related a significant mitigating factor, the Southland Times said.
On Newstalk ZB this week, Nash said, “I’ve seen a couple of judgments, and actually one I phoned up the Police Commissioner and said ‘surely you’re going to appeal this?
“This bloke didn’t have a licence, had illegal firearms, had illegal ammunition and had guns without a licence and he got home detention, I think that was a terrible decision by the judge.”
Nash later doubled down, believing he had done no wrong in calling Coster or criticising the decision, despite it violating rules in the Policing Act and the Cabinet Manual.
A statement from Coster said he regarded the phone call as Nash “venting ... frustration and nothing more”.
“I felt this was a rhetorical question, not a request, and I did not take any action following the phone call. I cannot recall any other details about the case referenced,” Coster said.
The Act Party was the first to call for Nash’s resignation, later joined by National.
After the revelation, Hipkins announced Nash would no longer continue as Police Minister, having shown a “serious error of judgment”. Senior Minister Dr Megan Woods would take the portfolio in an acting capacity.
Hipkins said Nash had volunteered to step down from the portfolio. Had he not, Hipkins would have forced the move.
Nash remained as Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Minister for Economic Development and Minister of Forestry, alongside his role as regional lead for the cyclone recovery in Hawke’s Bay.
Hipkins told reporters Nash had assured him nothing similar had occurred in the past.
On a trip to Gisborne with Hipkins yesterday, Nash finally admitted he had “completely stuffed up”.
“I own it, made a mistake, and onwards and upwards,” he said.
“If I make the same mistake again, the Prime Minister will have to take further action - but we learn from our errors.”
But it was just a day later when Newstalk ZB revealed the Solicitor-General considered prosecuting Nash for contempt over public comments he made after the arrest of Eli Epiha in the case of the killing of Police Constable Matthew Hunt.
The comments, made again on Newstalk ZB in 2020, included Nash saying the police had arrested the man responsible and he hoped he’d get a long prison sentence to reflect on what he’d done.
The case against Epiha hadn’t been completed and the Solicitor-General took a dim view of Nash’s outburst, saying while they’d decided not to prosecute him, they referred the matter to the Attorney-General to rebuke him, which he did.
The Crown Law office confirmed to Newstalk ZB that the Solicitor-General had considered prosecuting Nash for it - but had instead recommended to Attorney-General David Parker to reprimand Nash for “unacceptable” comments.
Parker had formally reprimanded Nash for it. It was understood Hipkins was not aware of the reprimand.
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