Stuart Nash demoted, but stays in Cabinet and on final warning, PM says

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has demoted Stuart Nash to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings and put him “on notice”.

He has kept his other ministerial roles.

Hipkins said Nash had breached the Cabinet Manual a third time, when he directly advocated for a constituent to Immigration NZ.

“It’s clear in his pattern of behaviour, Stuart is not acting to achieve personal gain,” Hipkins said.

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Nash resigned as police minister on Wednesday. Speaking to media earlier in the week, he criticised a judge’s ruling and admitting to encouraging Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to appeal the ruling.

There was mounting pressure for Nash to lose his other ministerial roles, after it was revealed the Solicitor General considered prosecuting him after an earlier on air blunder in 2020.

Hipkins said Nash had given him “assurances” that he hadn’t made similar “serious errors of judgment”.

But it later eventuated that Nash had run into trouble for another on air blunder in 2020.

Attorney-General David Parker intervened, and formally reprimanded Nash for his commentary. Parker said he made it clear to Nash that a minister could not comment on active court cases, and later told him not to criticise the judiciary.

In 2020, Nash went on Newstalk ZB and commented about the investigation into the murder of police constable Matthew Hunt. Eli Epiha had been arrested, but had not been found guilty. Nash said: “Let’s hope this guy has many years in jail to contemplate what he’s done”.

Parker spoke to Nash after the Solicitor General, Una Jagose, who runs Crown Law, said she had considered whether to pursue legal action against the then police minister. Jagose decided not to after confirmation Nash had been warned not to make such comments about matters before the court.