Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Wally Haumaha's conduct is not poor enough to fire him from his role as Deputy Police Commissioner, despite an IPCA report saying he acted at times inappropriately and unprofessionally.
Following the release of the report this morning, Ardern sought legal advice from the Solicitor-General on whether Haumaha's conduct met the threshold to be removed from office.
"There is not a clear and proper basis to support removal," the legal advice, released to the media, said.
"It is significant that the IPCA did not conclude it was bullying, as defined, even though it acknowledged some of the behaviour was consistent with bullying as that term is understood in common usage."
The legal advice said IPCA report finding that Haumaha approached staff to garner their support was "improper, because it made them feel uncomfortable and concerned about career progressions".
"The findings should be taken seriously. They do not reflect well on the Deputy Commissioner. However, they are properly of a nature and gravity that the Police Commissioner can and should deal with them as behavioural expectations."
Haumaha can only be fired on advice by Ardern to the Governor-General, and Ardern said she could not do so unless the threshold had been met.
But she said she expected the standard of behaviour among New Zealand Police to be lifted.
"I absolutely have an expectation that the Commissioner of Police act on the IPCA's findings," Ardern said.
"I'm very disappointed at the findings of the IPCA report which shows Mr Haumaha has in some cases acted inappropriately and unprofessionally.
"There is a clear expectation on police that they act professionally. I have relayed my views to the Minister of Police and ask that he pass on to the [Police] commissioner my expectation that he deal with those matters as employment matters."
She said seeking the advice ensured the independence of police and that her decision could not be seen as politically motivated.
Asked about Haumaha resigning, Ardern said that was up to him.
Police Minister Stuart Nash said he had written to Police Commissioner Mike Bush and asked how he intended to respond to the IPCA report, and how he will manage inter-agency work in the future.
"The report did not make any recommendations but it is clear that a finding of improper and unprofessional behaviour requires follow up action," Nash said.
"No police officer, at any level in the organisation, should act improperly or unprofessionally and I am disappointed to hear the IPCA found it happened in this case.
"The behaviour identified in the IPCA report does not meet the high standards I expect."
A report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority, released today, found Haumaha's behaviour while heading a Māori justice project was at times unprofessional and inappropriate for a senior executive.
Some of the incidents could be described as bullying, as the word is commonly understood, but his actions did not reach the workplace definition which requires "persistence", the IPCA found.
READ THE IPCA REPORT HERE:
The IPCA found Haumaha asserted his authority "aggressively" in an argument with one of the women by putting his leg on the chair in front of her, which was intimidating "whether it was designed to be or not".
Meanwhile, two government departments also failed to meet current State Services Commission standards when staff raised concerns about the workplace behaviour of Deputy Police Commissioner Wally Haumaha.
The review by State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes found a number of problems with how the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Corrections responded to three staff working on a joint project with the police.
Three women - two senior policy analysts from Justice and one from Corrections - walked out of Police National Headquarters in June 2016 and refused to return because of Haumaha's alleged verbal bullying.
Two of the women laid formal complaints with the police this year after the Herald broke the story in August.
The SSC did not investigate the merits of their complaints which are at the centre of a separate investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
The IPCA report was released today and found Haumaha's behaviour to be inappropriate and unprofessional at times. The findings were "damning", according to National Party leader Simon Bridges who called for the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to dismiss him.
The women have since spoken to the Herald about the "concerning" findings of the police watchdog.
Instead, Hughes focused on how Justice and Corrections handled the concerns about Haumaha when the women first raised them.
He then measured the conduct of the two departments in 2016 against new public service standards which came into force the following year.
The three women raised issues directly with their managers on different occasions and action was taken after a particular meeting with Haumaha in June 2016.
A decision was made for the trio to leave PNHQ and continue working on the project from the Justice offices.
The project had been difficult and stressful and Haumaha was aware of rising tension within the group.
The women stressed to the SSC there were "lost opportunities" to address their concerns earlier in 2016.
"The difficulty appears to have been that - while managers were aware of some incidents and tension - the women did not feel like they appreciated the impact this was having on them," wrote Hughes.
"Both women commented that their managers had competing priorities as they were heavily invested in the substantive work of the joint project. As a result, the women felt like emphasis was placed on delivering the work of the project, as opposed to taking any steps to respond to the allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour."
The lack of structure around their secondment to the joint project left the women uncertain as to who they could talk to.
Poor communication was a major issue identified by the SSC review.
While there was regular communication between the Justice managers and the women in the week after they made the bullying allegations in June 2016, this soon became "disjointed".
"This culminated in a significant miscommunication concerning whether senior leadership within Police, beyond Deputy Commissioner Haumaha, would be informed about the allegation," wrote Hughes.
"The communication between the managers at Justice and Corrections also seemed to have been poor, or non-existent."
Although some aspects of how Justice managers responded were good - arranging others to collect the women's belongings from PNHQ was thoughtful - there was no developed plan.
"Both women also got the sense that the managers saw the move to Justice as a convenient and fast way to resolve the issue and move on with the work of the project."
A few days later, one of the managers suggested the women should consider changing their language and behaviour around Haumaha.
"While well-meant and followed by an apology, the nature of this comment and the context [in that the women had previously been informed by the manager that Deputy Commissioner Haumaha did not consider he had anything to apologise for] left the women with the impression that their allegation may not have been taken that seriously after all."
Hughes found both departments did not have robust processes in 2016 and therefore would have failed to meet the current standards of today.
The issue of poor communication was extended to the women themselves and the SSC was "concerned" the complainants were not debriefed after making the allegation.
Nearly two weeks after leaving PNHQ, there was a meeting between the women and senior management.
"But there were significant miscommunications at this meeting and, it appeared to us, that the women had been left without any sense of resolution."
By contrast, the Justice deputy chief executive Colin Lynch saw the meeting as bringing the matter to a close.
He acknowledged the issues and observed Haumaha worked for the police, not Justice, so it was a matter for the Police to deal with.
The women took this to mean the police were treating it as an employment matter, so they would not receive any updates.
"But for us the most concerning issue is that, despite what was said at the meeting, no one in the senior leadership within Police [beyond Deputy Commissioner Haumaha] was told about the women's allegation until early August 2016."
Police were not told by anyone at Justice or Corrections but Louise Nicholas - a friend of one of the women - who raised it directly with Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement without revealing names.
He called Audrey Sonerson, the acting chief executive at Justice, and Christine Stevenson, the deputy chief executive at Corrections, but was left with the clear impression neither department wanted to take it further.
"The women we spoke to told us that, ultimately, they were left hanging in relation to their allegation," wrote Hughes.
The SSC said the failure to debrief and adequately support the women meant both departments failed to meet the "keeping people safe" standard now in place.
The review recommended the State Services Commission update bullying policy standards to ensure the "specific challenges represented by cross-agency projects are addressed".
In a statement to the Herald, Hughes said the women who raised these concerns have been through a difficult time.
"Despite this, they worked with us and were committed to improving the system and for that I thank them."
The SSC view of the decision by Justice managers to not directly raise concerns with police leadership differs from the findings of the Government Inquiry.
"On my understanding of the facts of the various allegations, I consider their approach was reasonable," wrote Scholtens.
Even if there had been a formal complaint, Scholtens found the likely consequence would be the concerns would have formed part of Commissioner Mike Bush's assessment of Haumaha's leadership style.
And Bush already knew Haumaha could be "forceful" and "demanding", said Scholtens, because of a blunt appraisal of his strengths and weaknesses for a previous promotion.
Scholtens characterised the bullying allegations as Haumaha's adoption of a "direct, police style-approach" to a multi-agency project, "where a more orthodox public sector approach may have been appropriate".
Her findings disappointed the two women who made complaints.
"We want to be clear; we complained," they told the Herald after the Government Inquiry was released.
"We struggled to get our complaints about Deputy Commissioner Haumaha's behaviour taken seriously. We came up against impenetrable systemic barriers."
They allege the Crown ignored Treaty obligations by not engaging with them.