On the Tiles: Will staffer allegations damage Kiri Allan and Labour long-term?

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins alongside Minister Kiri Allan (left). Photo / Andrew Warner

The week started well for Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. After a strong start to his major trip to China, and a fumble from National with their uncosted new law and order policy, it seemed like the Government could swing positive headlines back in their direction.

That all changed on Wednesday afternoon, when reports emerged that the head of the Department of Conservation last year had passed on concerns about interactions between Minister Kiri Allan and a staffer on secondment to the Department of Internal Affairs.

While no formal complaints were lodged and the discussion did not go any further, Allan has had to defend herself this week, referring to attempts to find more information on it as a “fishing exercise” by the Opposition.

Speaking to host Georgina Campbell on the Herald’s politics podcast, On the Tiles, Newstalk ZB chief political reporter Aaron Dahmen said there’s a question hanging over this scenario around who is telling the truth.

“Having been in this job long enough, you’ve seen people weaponise all sorts against politicians, but also politicians against staffers or against the Opposition or the Opposition against the Government when it comes to an election year and when it comes to issues that speak to undermine certain politicians, because of course trust is kind of one of those currencies and perception of trust that is so valuable when it comes to politics.”

Complicating the story is the fact Allan has taken time off work recently due to mental health and the end of her relationship with former RNZ journalist Mani Dunlop.

“Those puzzle pieces just start to really blur the picture as to whether or not Kiri Allan took that time off for reasons other than what’s going on at the moment and not these allegations that have come to light from last year, or whether or not this is someone else entirely, opposition or indeed kind of some other nefarious sort of situation where someone is trying to weaponise her time off for political gain.”

While Allan has denied the claims and the Government has backed her up, Dahmen said new allegations have emerged about a senior public servant saying Allan yelled and screamed at them so loudly that staff could hear the telephone call.

It adds to the growing issues Hipkins has faced with ministers, having had to sack Stuart Nash and Michael Wood in the last three months and losing Meka Whaitiri after she quit Labour to join Te Pāti Māori.

Dahmen said Hipkins will need to avoid the Allan situation becoming the same “drip feeding” scenario as with her other colleagues, but Hipkins will also have to answer questions around what sort of behaviour we deem acceptable for politicians.

“People are people, and I think that’s the argument being made here, where people might snap or people might have days where they’re not doing so well, and those people might be ministers and those ministers might snap at staffers, and the question is whether or not that is appropriate at this point as well.”

Listen to the full episode of On the Tiles here for more on the week in politics, including National’s party conference, how Carmel Sepuloni performed as acting Prime Minister, and why Chris Hipkins is still the political winner of the week.

On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Fridays.