Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster seems to have “undone” his apology over the Jevon McSkimming affair with comments since.
Coster resigned as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency after an Independent Police Conduct Authority’s damning report into police’s response to allegations of sexual offending by former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming.
In a statement he said his resignation was “a result of my acceptance of full responsibility for the shortcomings” identified in the IPCA’s report.
Hipkins told Morning Report on Tuesday he had listen Coster’s apology when he resigned from the the Social Investment Agency.
The Labour leader said much of the impact of that statement had been “undone” by a subsequent interview with TVNZ’s Q+ A.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins have denied Coster’s claims.
Photo: RNZ
In the programme on Sunday, Coster claimed he had briefed former Police Minister Chris Hipkins and current Police Minister Mark Mitchell about the allegations before both said they were aware. Both have denied Coster’s claims.
Coster said the briefing to Hipkins was a “casual conversation” while the pair travelled together in the South Island in July 2022.
Hipkins told Morning Report he was “absolutely certain that conversation did not happen”.
“I have spent a lot of time thinking was there something I have missed, and I have no recollection of that conversation.
“A ministerial press secretary who was also travelling in the car, does not remember that happening either.”
Hipkins said that if the former commissioner had wanted to raise it there were formal ways to do so, either through the minister or through the employment vetting process.
He said the IPCA report was clear that Coster did not do that.
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