David Farrar: Labour’s top cop off to a bad start

The Post reports:

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers has expressed severe displeasure over the process that led to a superintendent standing at a high spot on the Labour list. …

Chambers said he had only learnt about the possibility of Naidoo being a Labour candidate on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the list-ranking process that happened over the weekend.

“On Thursday afternoon I was informed by his supervisor that Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo was considering standing as a candidate for the Labour Party in the general election. On Sunday afternoon, I was told Superintendent Naidoo had confirmed he had accepted a position on Labour’s list,” Chambers said in a statement.

“Superintendent Naidoo has not contacted me directly on this and I am very disappointed that he did not inform me or his supervisor that he was in discussions about his candidacy at an earlier stage.”

“The Police Manual requires staff who are intending to stand for public office to advise of their intentions as early as possible. That is essential to ensure conflicts of interest and work tasks can be managed so that the neutrality and impartiality of Police is not brought into question.”

Instead of as early as possible, it was done as late as possible. There is no way he only decided last week he wanted to stand, and a few days later he is a highly ranked list candidate.

The process in the Labour rules is:

• Nominations open for up to two months
• Regional List Ranking Conferences
• National Moderating Committee

This is again a process that takes months, not weeks or days. And he told his boss about it only four days before it was announced.

I suspect he will argue that he only made a final decision to stand last week – basically once he was told he had a high list ranking. But that is not the test. It is about intentions.

The question media should ask Mr Naidoo is on what date did he sign the internal nomination form seeking to be a candidate for Labour. I bet you it wasn’t just this week.

Another question would be whether his name went to a Regional List Ranking Conference, and when was that held.

I’ve managed to locate the Police Manual online. It is very clear:

Police employees intending to seek election to any elected public office must advise their District Commander or Director at the earliest opportunity so that the potential impact on their role as a Police employee and any necessary plan of action can be discussed early.

So it is black and white – the earliest opportunity. This would be before you even sign a nomination form.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders