Chris Hipkins says he is adamant he was never informally briefed by the former Police Commissioner on the handling of complaints against disgraced Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
Coster, who has been heavily criticised for his role in the scandal sparked by McSkimming’s affair with a much younger woman and last week resigned as Social Investment Agency chief executive, has alleged former Police Minister Chris Hipkins and incumbent Mark Mitchell knew more than they’d publicly admitted about the handling of complaints against McSkimming.
Speaking to Jack Tame in a pre-recorded interview on TVNZ’s Q+A programme on Sunday, Andrew Coster said Cabinet ministers from consecutive Governments had been briefed “informally” – Hipkins in July 2022 when or before police were preparing for the statutory appointment process of McSkimming as deputy commissioner, and Mitchell earlier than the November 6 2024 date Mitchell has previously suggested.
The informal briefing of Hipkins took place in the back of a car as the pair travelled through the South Island, but he didn’t keep a record, Coster told Q+A.
Hipkins spent a lot of time on the weekend “thinking if there’s some information I had missed the significance of”, he told Herald NOW.
“I’m adamant that that conversation [alleged informal briefing] never happened.”
His press secretary was also in the car at the time of the alleged briefing and “has no recollection” of it, Hipkins said.
“There’s clear details that are wrong [also]. We weren’t in a Crown car, we were in a police car, and there were others in the car.
“[And] had that conversation taken place I don’t think Jevon McSkimming would have ever progressed as far and as fast as he did to being promoted to the statutory Deputy Commissioner of Police.”
There was also an obligation on Coster to make sure the complaints about McSkimming were being declared in the appointment process, Hipkins said.
Coster has previously said he found out about the affair in late 2020 after McSkimming had been appointed as a non-statutory deputy commissioner.
“There were multiple failings here,” said Hipkins.
Coster had a “different recollection of what he told people, and when”, Hipkins said.
“It’s not just me … Mark Mitchell, the deputy Public Services Commissioner and the Independent Police Conduct Authority [do not] agree with him.”
He believed Mitchell when the Police Minister said Coster’s recollections on when he was briefed were wrong, Hipkins said.
Mitchell posted on Facebook Sunday that he was disappointed Coster was trying to “deflect and relitigate matters” with his claims.
“I want to make very clear that Mr Coster never briefed me, either formally or informally, about Jevon McSkimming and Ms Z prior to 6 November 2024.
“I would note his recollections of disclosures in the IPCA report were often found to be inconsistent and unreliable.”
Hipkins was also “disappointed”, the former Prime Minister said.
“I accepted at face value what I thought was a sincere resignation and acceptance of responsibility … he then seemed to undo all of that.”
Coster’s resignation from the Social Investment Agency last week followed a damning IPCA report into the way police handled complaints against McSkimming, published in November.
Coster had been on leave since the report was published and said his decision to resign was a result of his “acceptance of full responsibility” for shortcomings identified in the review.
“I regret the impact on the young woman at the centre of this matter and sincerely apologise to her for the distress caused.”
The allegations were made by a woman with whom McSkimming had an affair, over a number of years.
The woman, dubbed Ms Z because of suppression orders, spoke exclusively to the Herald about the “ongoing nightmare” she’d suffered at the hands of the former Deputy Police Commissioner.
She sent hundreds of anonymous emails over years, alleging McSkimming was a sexual predator who had groomed her.
While McSkimming had admitted a consensual affair with the much younger woman – she was 21 at the time, he was 42 – he denied the allegations and claimed she was motivated by revenge.
Senior police didn’t investigate the allegations, which continued as McSkimming sought the role of Police Commissioner, the most senior job within the police.
The IPCA report noted the former police executive prioritised McSkimming’s ambitions in the force above investigating the complaints.
For years, that narrative was accepted by McSkimming’s supervisors, who instead used the emails as evidence to prosecute Ms Z amid McSkimming’s campaign to replace Coster, the then-outgoing Police Commissioner.
McSkimming resigned in May after the discovery of objectionable images on his police devices, including child exploitation and bestiality material.
He pleaded guilty to charges related to that material and awaits sentencing.