Prime Minister Chris Hipkins appoints Andrew Kirton as chief of staff

Labour general secretary and campaign manager Andrew Kirton. Photo/ Audrey Young

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has appointed former Labour Party General Secretary Andrew Kirton to be his chief of staff. Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s chief of staff Raj Nahna has decided to leave the Beehive.

Kirton was a former staffer during the Clark government and was a campaign manager for the successful 2017 election campaign.

He is extremely well connected in Wellington. His wife, Camilla Belich is a sitting Labour list MP and is tipped as a replacement for Ardern as Labour’s Mt Albert candidate. He is also familiar with National leader Christopher Luxon, who had hired Kirton away from Labour to head up Air New Zealand’s government relations team.

He is also the nephew of Neil Kirton, a former NZ First MP who was Associate Minister of Health in the NZ First-National coalition Government.

He is well-liked in Labour circles and is close with Ardern.

The end of his period at Labour was marred by his handling of the fallout from the Labour youth summer camp at Waihi in February 2018, where there were alleged assaults and widespread drunkenness.

After a young man at the camp, who initially faced indecent assault allegations, was discharged without conviction on two common assault charges, the Court of Appeal suppressed his name permanently in September 2020 - ending the case.

Labour took what it called a “victim-led” approach to the complaints and no outside investigation was sought, which was later criticised.

It also later decided it would be “inappropriate” to allow the public see the full report reviewing its policies after the scandal. This was despite then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declaring the external report, conducted by Wellington lawyer Maria Austen, would be released when the criminal court proceedings concluded.

Kirton was backed by then-party president Nigel Haworth and the wider Labour team at the time.

Ardern’s deputy chief of staff Holly Donald is staying on, as is her chief press secretary Andrew Campbell.