Public Service boss spotted at coffee meeting with Andrew Coster

Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche met former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster at a public cafe overlooking the Beehive yesterday.

It comes a month and a half after Roche said he would have sacked Coster, had he not resigned his role as Social Investment Agency boss himself.

The pair met at Mojo Cafe inside Defence House, an office complex directly behind Parliament.

The Public Service Commission didn’t address questions on the meeting, describing it only as “a general catch-up”.

Questions to Coster went unanswered.

Newstalk ZB understands the pair agreed last year to have a catch-up in the future.

Coster, the former Police Commissioner, resigned from his Social Investment Agency role in December after the fallout from the Independent Police Conduct Authority report into Jevon McSkimming.

The report found the highest-ranking police officers in New Zealand ignored anonymous allegations that former deputy commissioner McSkimming was a sexual predator.

Instead of investigating the serious allegations against McSkimming, the emails were used by police as evidence to prosecute the complainant under the Harmful Digital Communications Act.

Coster was placed on leave shortly after the report was made public and resigned on December 3.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, flanked by Deputy Commisioners Tania Kura and Jevon McSkimming, during their appearance before the Justice select committee, Parliament, Wellington. 15 February, 2023. New Zealand Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell

In a statement, Coster said his decision to resign was a result of his “acceptance of full responsibility for the shortcomings identified in the Independent Police Conduct Authority’s review of the handling of complaints against Jevon McSkimming during my tenure as Commissioner of Police”.

Speaking to the Herald soon after, Roche said if Coster hadn’t resigned, he would have sacked him.

“All options were on the table. If I’d had to [sack him], I would have. I didn’t have to because he made the right professional decision.

“I’m not of the view that he has committed anything personally and the IPCA were very clear that they didn’t find issues of corruption or, in my language, collusion of officers,” Roche said.

“But there were a series of events which cumulatively painted a story and he was accountable for that organisation.”

Coster received three months’ salary on his exit. Coster’s base salary was $495,825, meaning three months would be worth just shy of $124,000.

Ethan Griffiths is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, based in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He joined NZME as a print journalist in 2020, previously working as an Open Justice reporter in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington, and as a general reporter in Whanganui.