Within six hours of Nash’s comments on Newstalk ZB, Hipkins was making an announcement about his Police Minister’s resignation.
“What Nash has effectively done is interfere with matters before the police, which is a big no-no when it comes to the separation of politics and police,” says Walls.
“This is such a meaningful relationship split that it’s actually codified in the Cabinet Manual, which is the ministerial rule book essentially.
“There are a lot of people arguing right now that the Prime Minister didn’t go far enough by just sacking him as Police Minister and he should have gone a lot further and sacked him from Cabinet altogether.”
Nash still retains the Forestry, Oceans and Fisheries and Economic Development portfolios as things stand at the moment.
Despite sharp criticism from Opposition parties, Walls anticipates that Hipkins will not take these portfolios away from Nash in the lead-up to the election.
“What happens beyond that remains to be seen,” Walls says. The situation has created a headache for the Government, which must now appoint yet another Minister to take charge of a portfolio facing enormous criticisms due to the rising fear of crime across the country.
“This is about the fourth Police Minister we’ve had, so it does look pretty shaky. If it was the finance portfolio and we were going into recession with our fifth finance Minister, that wouldn’t instil a lot of confidence.”
So who could steady the ship for Labour? Do they have enough talent in their ranks to fill key ministerial roles? And now that Hipkins can’t play the role of Mr Fix It, who will take that responsibility?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to hear Walls suggest where the Police portfolio will likely end up.
