Audrey Young: PM unlikely to call for Robinson's head

In the unlikely event of Police Commissioner Rob Robinson resigning over failures in the 111 system it will be because he is fed up, not because the Government wants him to.

The Government has made it clear it does not want him to resign, not right now anyway.

It is in its own interests not to force his early departure.

Helen Clark is daily being accused by the Opposition of having encouraged the resignation of former commissioner Peter Doone in 1999, soon after she became Prime Minister.

Losing two police commissioners in two terms would be seen as more than accidental or careless.

It would also be difficult for the Government to justify pressing for Mr Robinson's head when it reappointed him only last December for another two years.

The inquiry into the 111 system was well under way by then and the damning outcome this week would have come as no surprise.

Mr Robinson's reappointment was a vote of confidence in how he handled the inquiry into the 111 system - getting in independent experts from overseas - and how he handled historic charges of a sexual nature against senior officers.

In such a dreadful couple of years for the police, exacerbated by a dismal public performance by pressured Police Minister George Hawkins, the Cabinet decision to keep Mr Robinson was also a vote for stability.

The commissioner and the minister have had a difficult relationship at times.

Helen Clark has made it fairly clear who is the more expendable: Mr Robinson got another two years; Mr Hawkins was given notice in the list rankings that he will get his marching orders from the Cabinet if Labour is returned at the election.

Helen Clark has described Mr Robinson as a "strong and principled commissioner", and that was endorsed yesterday in Parliament by Justice Minister Phil Goff, answering on behalf of Helen Clark and absent Police Minister George Hawkins.

Mr Robinson said he would resign if the Government lost confidence in him.

His aim, apparently, is to stay on and apply the Alan Martin principle - if it's not right, we'll put it right.

At present, that intention suits the Government.

With less than four months to go to an election, it won't want to risk creating a perception of a leadership vacuum in the police.