Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says it’s ‘premature’ to judge Kiri Allan’s future before a ‘good chat’ - at the end of next week

Kiri Allan remains a senior minister in Chris Hipkins’ Cabinet but her future is uncertain until they can have a discussion next week about concerns over working relationships in her office.

The Prime Minister was careful not to frame that meeting as her career hanging in the balance, but he also said it would be premature to make a judgment until he had heard from her, and he didn’t express confidence in her when asked directly.

However, he saw no need for an inquiry, and he implied confidence by saying she is “an exceptionally talented minister”. He rejected the idea that he was not backing her.

Allan is on leave this week to look after her child during school holidays, and while Parliament is in recess. Hipkins said she had asked for leave and he had agreed, given her “rough couple of weeks” and the “intense scrutiny” she had been under.

With Hipkins in Europe the following week, he said they would have “a good chat” at the end of next week.

Allan was recently on mental health leave, but this was unrelated to concerns that surfaced about her working relationships with the Department of Conservation and the National Emergency Management Agency. She returned to work last Thursday, and rejected any allegations of improper behaviour.

She was watching Hipkins yesterday answering questions at his post-Cabinet press conference, and chimed in to say that she was not on mental health leave.

“For those watching Post Cab stand up right now, I’m not on ‘mental health leave again’,” she said on Twitter.

“I’ll take a couple of days off over school holidays because each parent has to as we don’t have others that can take care of our kid. Please stop conflating my MH with external allegations.”

She added: “My main plea to media is not to conflate the MH issues with the other allegations atm. My MH issues were to do with personal things that happened. MH is not an excuse for poor behaviour - I’ve been clear, where there are issues to answer for, I will.”

Concerns over Allan’s working relationships - from over a year ago - have been confirmed by the heads of DoC and Nema, but were resolved at the time. No formal complaints were laid.

“The chief executives concerned have not raised any specific concerns with me,” Hipkins said.

“If they don’t feel they have any issues that need to be elevated to me because they are staffing matters, then I’ll leave that with them. That’s the appropriate course of action.

“I don’t see the need for there to be a separate layer of inquiry over the top of that.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says Kiri Allan is entitled to natural justice. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Asked if he was confident in Allan as a minister, he said: “We’re going to catch up and have a good chat about where everything’s at when I get back from Europe.”

He said “people are getting ahead of themselves” when asked if he was leaving the door open for her to leave. Asked again about confidence in Allan, he said she’s “an exceptionally talented minister who has contributed an awful lot to our Government”.

Did that mean he wasn’t necessarily backing Allan going forward? “I don’t think that’s a fair characterisation of anything I’ve just said.”

He later added: “We haven’t had a chance to have a conversation. So, therefore, making judgments is premature.”

Allan was entitled to natural justice and a right of response, he said.

“I have not had the opportunity to sit down and talk to her. Clearly, I’m not going to get that over the next week, and then I’m away next week, so we’ll have a conversation when I return.”

Allan said last week she was not aware of any allegations concerning her working relationships, and she has never shouted at her staff. An allegation then emerged from an anonymous public servant, who told Stuff that Allan had shouted at them - which Allan refuted.

Hipkins said it was hard to form a judgment on anonymous accusations that had not been raised internally.

He said shouting might be okay in the workplace depending on the circumstances, adding: “Shouting at someone in a one-on-one context is not okay.”

He had not asked Allan to think about her future as a minister.

“I can provide a reassurance that if anyone raises any serious issues about ministerial conduct, that is something that I will take very seriously,” he said.

“I don’t expect ministers to be absolutely perfect human beings. Everybody will have a bad day from time to time, particularly when you’re under pressure. The question is, what do you then do about that?

“I expect ministers to make sure they’re treating people with respect.”

Last week, Allan also confirmed she had separated from her partner, former RNZ presenter Māni Dunlop. The pair got engaged in September last year.

Dunlop left RNZ in March and at her farewell event, Allan criticised the state broadcaster for its treatment of Māori staff and ability to retain talent. Some of the comments later became public, and led to an apology from Allan and acknowledgment it could have been perceived as an attempt to tell RNZ how to operate.

Derek Cheng is a political reporter for the Herald and has worked in the Press Gallery in Parliament for several years, covering the Helen Clark, John Key, and Jacinda Ardern governments.