Naidoo, police\u2019s ethnic, iwi and communities national partnerships manager, was given the 13th spot on Labour\u2019s candidate list for the upcoming election, placing him above many current MPs and essentially guaranteeing him a seat in Parliament. <\/p>\n
After the list was published on Monday, Police Minister and National MP Mark Mitchell told the Herald he was disappointed Naidoo only disclosed his candidacy a few days before, despite having had conversations with Labour for months. <\/p>\n
Mitchell was particularly concerned about Naidoo\u2019s access to sensitive information relating to public safety and Government policy. He did not provide evidence Naidoo had inappropriately shared sensitive information.<\/p>\n
Chambers echoed that disappointment in his own statement and considered it \u201cuntenable\u201d for Naidoo to continue in his role with police. Chambers later announced the review into whether any information had been shared with any third party during the period Naidoo was in contact with Labour. <\/p>\n
Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo’s selection as a Labour candidate has concerned Police Minister Mark Mitchell.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s set off a political stoush in which Labour leader Chris Hipkins has criticised Chambers for launching an investigation without providing evidence and Labour\u2019s police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen accusing Mitchell of compromising Chambers\u2019 independence, a claim Mitchell strongly rejects. <\/p>\n
The duration of the investigation isn\u2019t yet clear. It\u2019s understood Naidoo would go through a consultation period with police and complete handovers before leaving the force to campaign for Labour. <\/p>\n
Some people the Herald spoke to acknowledged they knew and had worked with Naidoo but declined to comment given the ongoing investigation and the political nature of the debate. <\/p>\n
Former Race Relations Commissioner Gregory Fortuin worked alongside Naidoo as fellow members of Chambers\u2019 ethnic advisory forum. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Naidoo\u2019s] integrity is beyond doubt based on my experience, and I would challenge anybody who\u2019s worked with him to say otherwise,\u201d Fortuin told the Herald. <\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t comment further while police were investigating. <\/p>\n
Former Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres is questioning whether the police investigation is politically motivated. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
De Bres, who was commissioner between 2002 and 2013, said he had interacted with Naidoo over a period of about 20 years and described him as an \u201coutstanding police officer\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Naidoo] has always been very loyal to the police and very conscious of what he can and what he can\u2019t say and what he can and can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really is very highly regarded in ethnic communities \u2026 he mobilised for the mosque attacks in Christchurch overnight, he was there with his team working with the families and guiding the police during that awful event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that [former Race Relations Commissioner] Dame Susan Devoy speaks highly of him \u2026 and what I find difficult is that he\u2019s now suddenly seems to be under accusation of not behaving properly as a public servant, which I flatly reject.\u201d <\/p>\n
De Bres said he found Naidoo, currently the highest ranking police officer of Indian descent, a strong supporter of initiatives concerning ethnic communities and provided a vital link to the highest level of police. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know that the police commissioner knows that and his predecessors all know it, he was a critical connection between the police and ethnic communities because they trusted him and he was able to win their trust for the police.\u201d <\/p>\n
Police Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo, seen here with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro. <\/p>\n
While de Bres was confident those connections would continue, he suspected Naidoo\u2019s treatment would cause some blowback. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis will have damaged [the relationships] but no doubt [ethnic communities] will want to continue to maintain a good relationship with the police because they need the police, but the police also need them.\u201d <\/p>\n
De Bres said he was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d with Chambers\u2019 handling of the matter. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just kind of astonished and concerned that all of Rakesh\u2019s work seems to count for nothing, and I expect he\u2019ll be getting a lot of support from within the police force for his current situation.\u201d <\/p>\n
He questioned whether Naidoo would have been placed under this level of scrutiny had he stood for another party, a nod to Mitchell\u2019s role as a National Party MP. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like the minister and the commissioner have been riding tandem in terms of criticising Rakesh and I deplore that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo somehow say, \u2018We\u2019re going to review this because we don\u2019t know whether he\u2019s possibly shared confidential information\u2019, well, that\u2019s an insult to the reputation that I know that Rakesh has in the community and I think in the police.\u201d <\/p>\n
Chambers, currently flying to Britain, told the Herald in a statement he didn\u2019t want to stand in the way of Naidoo pursuing a political career. <\/p>\n
However, he maintained it wasn\u2019t acceptable he was \u201cblind\u201d to Naidoo\u2019s conversations with Labour until last Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI do not consider that satisfactory. I have sought a review now simply because I do need reassurance about the period Rakesh was engaging in discussions over his candidacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge the assurances of others that there was integrity in how this was handled. That may indeed be the case. However, I cannot simply take the word of others for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naidoo, police\u2019s ethnic, iwi and communities national partnerships manager, was given the 13th spot on Labour\u2019s candidate list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,95,4057,19956,1550,58631,17153,10806,2893,10113,2082,2740,42,62957,6721,63554,236147,238261,43,4762,675,18154,9831,7798,211571,1123,30618,17879,159602,1886,165,84459,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-471547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-and","tag-behind","tag-candidate","tag-centre","tag-commissioners","tag-damaged","tag-defend","tag-fear","tag-feud","tag-for","tag-former","tag-headlines","tag-integrity","tag-labour","tag-motives","tag-naidoo","tag-naidoos","tag-news","tag-party","tag-police","tag-political","tag-question","tag-race","tag-rakesh","tag-relations","tag-reputation","tag-selection","tag-superintendent","tag-support","tag-their","tag-throwing","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}