{"id":491048,"date":"2026-06-23T05:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491048\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:50:09","slug":"human-rights-commission-head-to-be-investigated-over-conduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/491048\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Commission head to be investigated over conduct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An investigation will be carried out into concerns raised about the conduct of Human Rights Commission chief commissioner Dr Stephen Rainbow.<\/p>\n<p>Rainbow will be investigated by Kristy McDonald KC, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Concerns about the chief commissioner have been raised directly with me as the Minister responsible for the Human Rights Commission,&#8221; said Goldsmith in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In accordance with the principles of fair process and natural justice for the parties involved, it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rainbow&#8217;s appointment in 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/politics\/525443\/new-chief-human-rights-commissioner-stephen-rainbow-s-pro-israel-facebook-posts-transphobia-accusations\" class=\"underline-brand-hover visited:text-foreground-secondary hover:visited:text-foreground-primary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">prompted concern from some quarters<\/a> &#8211; including Labour and the Greens &#8211; given his staunch pro-Israel views and previous comments about &#8220;a trans agenda&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Rainbow defended his appointment, saying he was committed to continuing the commission&#8217;s work protecting the rights of trans people.<\/p>\n<p>It found he was not part of the initial shortlist of candidates, and Goldsmith requested that he be added in place of other candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The panel in charge of assessing the candidates said it did not recommend appointing Rainbow, noting his lack of legal experience, but Goldsmith appointed him anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation will be carried out into concerns raised about the conduct of Human Rights Commission chief commissioner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-491048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491048","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=491048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}