Simon Bridges' attack on the "wokester" Police Commissioner Andy Coster is a 5-star political play. Not only is the police boss fair game but he's opening up a reasonable point of attack on the Government.
It's antiquated nonsense to say that Bridges is out of line attacking a public servant. Public servants as senior as the Police Commissioner are not neutral. They don't get to the top of their departments without being able to play highly political games. The entire public service is highly politicised. They know which side their bread is buttered on from election to election and they adapt accordingly. Much of the dirt that politicians - especially those in government - get on their opponents is directly from their underlings in the public service. The idea that they are neutral is as quaint as it is naive.
Of all of them, Coster has a perception of being one of the most political. He appeared to go out of his way in the Epidemic Select Committee in April last year to defend the Labour-led Government. He was repeatedly asked whether the lockdown was legal and repeatedly dodged the question. He could've answered it honestly. It wasn't his mistake that the lockdown wasn't legal. It was Attorney-General David Parker's mistake. But Coster - through his refusal to answer the question - appeared to shield one of his political masters. That makes him, in turn, anything but neutral.
What's more, his appointment screamed politics. Coster was not the obvious choice for police boss. Mike Clement was. The frontline expected that. The media expected that. Clement expected that. But then Coster got the job. That leapfrogging raises suspicion that he was chosen for his ideological alignment to the Prime Minister, who personally plucked him from relative public obscurity and promoted him to the role.
So, Coster is fair game. And quite frankly, so is any other senior public servant who shields their political masters. By protecting political players, they turn themselves into political players as well.