Heather du Plessis-Allan: Stuart Nash and Marama Davidson a headache for Chris Hipkins

After causing more trouble, Stuart Nash was this week sacked from Cabinet by PM Chris Hipkins. Photo / Warren Buckland

Just like that the Hipkins honeymoon is probably over.

Fortunately for Chris Hipkins, there’s probably still a lingering goodwill towards Chippy from the Hutt. Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t extend to his Labour Party.

Stuart Nash getting in trouble - again - has reminded the public that changing the General doesn’t change the troops. And if you didn’t like them before, you probably won’t like them now.

Hipkins must take some responsibility for the Nash saga getting to this stage. He should’ve sacked Nash two weeks ago. Nash was always going to cause more trouble. It was so predictable that this column actually predicted it a fortnight ago. The only surprising element was how quickly it proved true.

Hipkins is trying desperately to paint this latest indiscretion - the email to donors - as Nash’s most egregious yet. He’s hoping to make it sound completely different to the other indiscretions, to excuse his previous lack of discipline.

But in truth, it wasn’t Nash’s biggest mistake. Yes, an email full of secrets sent to men who donate money is a massive error of judgment. But line that up next to the fact that Crown Law considered prosecuting him for contempt of court and it’s not close. And yet Nash survived.

There’s a chance the Nash-created troubles are not yet over for Labour. The Chief Ombudsman is considering taking another look at why that email wasn’t released in the first place two years ago. The Police are due to release details of more texts from Nash to the Police Commissioner this week.

But the Marama Davidson drama is probably more damaging to Labour, even though she isn’t a Labour MP.

Her “white cis men” comments created huge amounts of anger. Far more anger than the Nash affair.

There were calls for an apology. Hipkins could’ve demanded one. She made it clear she was making the comments as Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence. And yet, even on Wednesday - five days later - she was still saying, “I am not going to apologise to cis men, no.”

Hipkins could’ve - if he wanted to - forced an apology out of her. He is the PM. She is one of his ministers.

But he didn’t. He said those were words he wouldn’t have used. Bringing race into it was “not particularly helpful”. Early on, that was enough. But when Davidson started doubling down and refusing to apologise, Hipkins’ action was not enough anymore. Because she was so publicly defiant and because she is a minister, his inaction looked at the very least like a lack of concern, at worst like private agreement.

There are a fair few white men and their wives pretty upset at those comments. Hipkins will need white men and their wives to win the election.

The announcement of an earlier start date for the construction of a new Auckland harbour crossing was a valiant effort at changing the subject but it provoked its own round of ridicule. Labour is hardly known for delivering big projects. After six years, light rail has only filled consultants’ bank accounts. After eight years, Let’s Get Wellington Moving has only produced one pedestrian crossing. The bike bridge to Birkenhead was killed before it really started. KiwiBuild became a joke.

Again, that was probably not the smartest distraction. Not this week anyway. It was just another reminder that Hipkins is dealing with the same old crew, with the same old tired tricks that Jacinda Ardern had to deal with.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive, Newstalk ZB, 4pm-7pm, weekdays.