Police Minister Mark Mitchell has firmly rejected claims by former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster that he was briefed earlier about allegations involving senior police leadership, saying no such discussions ever took place and accusing the former commissioner of “serious failures” in integrity and accountability.
In an interview with state media, Mitchell said his professional relationship with Coster was respectful but strained by fundamentally different views on public safety and policing priorities.
While acknowledging Coster’s long public service career and describing him as intelligent and previously capable, Mitchell said it became clear early in his tenure as Police Minister that the police executive lacked the capability and delivery needed to respond to rising violent crime, retail crime and gang activity.
Mitchell said he was not made aware of allegations involving a Jevon McSkimming and an extramarital affair until 6 November, when Coster was instructed by the Public Service Commission to brief him under a “no surprises” process. He flatly denied Coster’s later claim that the matter had been discussed informally throughout 2024.
“That’s not a conversation you forget,” Mitchell said, adding that had he been told earlier, he would have acted immediately.
He said the Independent Police Conduct Authority had since found Coster’s evidence unreliable and inconsistent, and noted there were no records, file notes or witnesses supporting the former commissioner’s version of events.
Mitchell also revealed he was unaware that 36 emails relating to the matter had been redirected away from his ministerial office under a protocol established by the commissioner’s office. He said he only learned of this arrangement after the IPCA report was released and described the situation as a shocking breach of integrity.
While acknowledging Coster’s public service, Mitchell said a genuine apology without caveats was required. He said restoring public confidence now depended on visible leadership, integrity and a renewed focus on frontline policing under the new commissioner and executive team.
Looks like Mitchell is in the drivers seat
Now Coaster has to either front up or f*ck up
That’s what happens when things are discussed, informally. It gives plausible deniability.
Or, discussed at the masonic Lodge or the Police Lounge…
Still, the woman who brought this all to light is still being…CHARGED!
Hopefully, Louise Nichols and her organisational skills are helping the charged woman who complained about police abuse.
The large scale political corruption started by R Douglas, then accelerated by H Clark and M Cullen is spreading in NZ.
Any hope the already wealthy Luxon would put an end to the country ruining corruption is fading.
The recent Westpac interest hike puts another nail in the honest government coffin. Demand for loans is low, therefore competition is heightened, and somehow Westpac knows putting their rates up won’t affect sales.
Cartels are outlawed, policed, and punished in all other successful western countries. Why not NZ?
It could be just a conincidence EX NZ ministers and prime ministers mysteriously leave office significantly richer than when they arrived.
Whats really fascinating in all the finger pointing and denials, is the belief they, as in the government, ever had the public trust to start with. This government is only one term in and facing possible defeat next election. That tends to suggest they were elected grudgingly, to start with.
The public are sick and tired of legislative radicalism, incompetence, interference in their lives, abject, often farcical waste, arrogance, corporate toadying and general greed, in the form of endless taxation, from politicians and government in NZ.
The only lifeline thrown this lot lately, sneaky old Labour’s fiscal tax avarice, in the form of CGT, being exposed ahead of the election.