andrew coster

Hands off the Police. That’s my message to the Government. In particular, the Finance Minister who is asking all government departments to cut spending by at least 6.5%.  

I’m saying it after Police Commissioner Andrew Coster warned yesterday that he can’t rule out job losses if he’s to deliver the savings being demanded 

This has all come from his comments to Parliament’s Justice Select Committee, which he fronted-up to yesterday as part of the annual review of the police. 

And let’s be straight-up from the start, even though he’s describing what happened yesterday as “our opportunity to be scrutinised and to answer the questions members of Parliament have”, we know full well it was also an opportunity to make a very public bid for sustained funding. 

Before going into that select committee room yesterday, Andrew Coster would have very carefully worked out what key message he wanted to ram home to the politicians and get us talking about. 

So yes, it’s all part of a “process”. But it is also very political, and I think we can safely say that he has achieved what he set out to do.  

Which was to make us think twice about this cost-cutting songsheet the Government is singing from, and what it might mean if it takes a blunt instrument across the whole public sector. 

Because I think the Government is nuts if it thinks cutting police spending is a good idea. And it’s why I think, if there’s one government department that should be exempt from the budget cuts, it’s the Police. 

Andrew Coster says 75% of the money that goes into the Police pays the wages and salaries of the people who do the work. 

If you know anything about organisations and businesses, you’ll know that, generally, people make up about 60% of costs.  

So, for the Police to be at 75%, just shows you how right Andrew Coster is when he says that any cost cutting will most likely mean reducing staff numbers. 

And I know we all like to think that the most important part of the Police is the frontline work. The stuff we actually see. 

But, as Andrew Coster points out, if we want more police on patrol and fighting crime, they need more back-office support too. 

Which is not the sort of thing you’ll hear from the politicians —whatever side of the House they’re on— because they’re all about “on the beat” and “bringing back the Bobby”, aren’t they? 

That’s why Labour made such a dog’s breakfast last year with its big 1800 new police nonsense. And then had to dance on the head of a pin when we found out that not all of those 1800 were frontline. 270 of them were back office, non-sworn officers. They should have just been upfront about it. 

So, I get what Andrew Coster is saying. And I hope you do too. And I hope the Government does, as well. Because just telling every government department to cut costs by 6.5%, irrespective of where they sit in the pecking order, is balmy. 

For example, why should the Police be expected to make the same level of cuts or percentage of cuts as, say, the Education Review Office or Statistics NZ or the Ministry for Women?   

Granted, the Police budget is way bigger than those outfits and so 6.5% from the Police budget will deliver much bigger savings from the Ministry for Women, for example, which this year has a budget of around $15 million. 

The Police budget is $2.2 billion. The Ministry for Women’s budget is $15 million 

6.5% of $2.2 billion is $143 million. 6.5% of $15 million is $975,000. So, yes, Andrew Coster’s cost-cutting would deliver a lot more money for things like tax cuts, compared to the savings likely to come from much smaller government departments and agencies. 

But I say “so what” to that. I say hands off the Police budget. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Now we've had a full day to digest Mark Mitchell's letter to the Police Commissioner, was he actually out of line to release that? 

His Labour predecessor said on this show yesterday that Mark Mitchell was huffing and puffing, talking up a big game and chest beating. 

To quote Ginny Andersen, “I think it's a demonstration of bravado”, and then saying, "He's getting dangerously close to telling the Commissioner how to do his job.” 

Thing is, we all know there's a line between setting a strategic direction and meddling in day-to-day operational activities. 

Mark Mitchell noted that, loud and clear, in his letter. 

So, what the Minister was doing was not telling the Commissioner how to do the job, but outlining what the priorities of the job are. 

That's not meddling, it's managing. 

If you want an example of meddling, look no further than sacked Minister Stuart Nash on the phone to the Commissioner over a court case, hoping to persuade him to get prosecutors to appeal for a stiffer sentence. 

So why was Ginny squealing so loudly over this? Well probably because she knows Labour hasn't got a leg to stand on when it comes to law and order. 

Their priority was to slash the prison population, regardless of how much crime the rest of us had to endure. 

That would have meant Andrew Little's letter to the Chief Justice when he took office in 2017 was saying ‘hey... dial it back a bit would you?’ 

‘Let's not lock up all these bad people... surely, it's OK to stick ankle bracelets on them, even when they're convicted of violent sex crimes or on trial for murder.’ 

Didn't that work out well. 

Point here is that Mitchell's letter to the Commissioner is entirely normal. It's the way things are done. 

Issuing it publicly is called transparency. It puts pressure on Andrew Coster but it also sends a message to the front line. 

We've heard you, it says, and things are going to change. 

And now it's in the public domain, everyone knows what page we're on. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm quite impressed that Mark Mitchell has made his letter of expectations to the Police Commissioner, Andrew Coster, public.  

Of course, it's normal for an incoming Police Minister to outline expectations to the Police Commissioner, a Commissioner, who's often been employed by the previous government. But this is the first time it has been released.  

While campaigning, Mitchell was reluctant to back Coster and initially I thought he'd released this letter to poke the bear, to put Coster on notice. And in a way, he has. Even though Mitchell doesn't have the ability to hire or fire the Police Commissioner, that's a job for the Public Service Commissioner, with the final call made by the Prime Minister. So, the reality is that Mitchell is stuck with Coster until April 2025, which is when his term finishes, unless he resigns beforehand.  

Mitchell might have put the Commissioner on notice, but by being so open and transparent, which I actually really appreciate, he's also put himself on notice. Not only has he outlined the government's expectations, but he has also stated that he's fully committed to backing the police by providing the tools and resources to restore law and order in our communities.  

Mitchell also put his big boy pants on, accepted that he has to work with Coster and is going about it in a constructive and positive way. Mitchell’s determined to see this as a reset, an opportunity to put a line in the sand between the last government's policies, approach to policing, and give Coster the chance to fulfil National's expectations.  

He doesn't really have a choice at the moment, Mitchell knows that, but is dealing with it maturely. When questioned by Mike Hosking this morning, he said Coster deserves a chance: 

“I think that he deserves a chance. I think that he's had a long career in the police and some of those roles have meant that he's had leadership roles in South Auckland, he's been an AOS Commander. So you know I respect that service and, and he's been given a chance now under a National Government to get out to support his frontline, provide the leadership, and start to deliver on what we want.” 

So, is Coster the man for the job to put these ambitious expectations into play? Only time will tell. The public service is, in theory, politically neutral. Coster knows it is his job to fulfil the current government's policies, and these policies are hardly news to him. They were campaigned on long and hard so if he wants the job, and he's up for the job, it's up to him.  

We all want to feel safe in our homes, our communities and workplaces. We're hoping that this focus on public safety and victims and real consequences for crime and serious offending, we're really hoping it's going to bring better outcomes. But at the end of the day, it's going to be about resources, and this is something that Police Association President Chris Cahill is concerned about. 

“The challenge, of course, is who's going to do all this stuff if we're losing cops to Australia? We'd like to see the word extra rather than just new. We already get 450 new a year, so that needs to be clarified that it's actually extra and not just new. I'll tell you what I want to see.  I want to see the letter of expectations going to the CEO of Health, the CEO of Oranga Tamariki, that they’re going to step in and do their job, ‘cause it can’t just be Police. So, I want to see the same letters, they need to be published as well.” 

And look, it makes total sense to involve other departments and take a multi-agency approach to allow the police to get back to the core police work, that's what so many of us are keen to see happen, but only if everyone's on the same page.  

If the Ministry of Health or Oranga Tamariki don't have the capacity or resources to deal with these problems, they're just passing the buck with little improvement. And no improvement in outcomes. And we want to feel safe in our homes and our community and our workplace, just like Mark Mitchell has stated.  

So, expectations are all good and well, but without the resources to put them in place, the new government risks being all talk and no action. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell's predecessor says his letter to the Police Commissioner seems a bit redundant.  

He's made his letter to Andrew Coster public. 

It focuses on things like tackling youth and gang offending, supporting frontline officers, and strengthening policing in communities.  

Ginny Andersen told Tim Dower that it's important that police have operational independence.  

She says the letter doesn't cover much new ground. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our Police Commissioner says it's difficult to quantify whether total crime's gone up.

The number of assaults on police staff has jumped from 631 in 2021 to more than 1000 last year.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says what's clear is that reported crime has gone up - but it's more than that.

"Proportional to that is an increase in actual crime, and a proportion of that is changes in the reporting of some types. It's not a simple picture."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Police Commissioner says sending in officers without hard body armour to end the anti-mandate protest at Parliament last year was a fine balance, but he stands by it.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has today released its report, finding overall police served the public well.

Commissioner Andrew Coster says the day started with 300 protesters, but ended with only about 100 rioting.

"If we'd had rioting with 300, we would not have successfully ended that situation. So I stand by that decision, it was very, very unfortunate that we had inadequate equipment for our people."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This IPCA report into how police handled the Parliamentary protest last year is not good for Andrew Coster.

Frontline police come out of this really well, they clearly did the best they could in really difficult situations.

When you read this report and listen again to what happened that day, the bricks being hurled at police, the violence of that hard-line crowd left at the end - it’s hard not to be impressed by the front line officers and how the vast majority of them held their cool and cleaned that place up without a huge amount of injury.

They did that while being very obviously let down by their bosses, that is indisputable from this report.

Police National Headquarters let those officers down in a number of ways that have been recorded in this report, but two stand out to me as the worst.

The first one is February 10, that was the first time the police tried to clear Parliament’s grounds.

You might remember that the police formed a big line in the morning and started pushing people back towards the tents. They started arresting protestors, but in the end got nowhere and gave up that afternoon. 

That day is a shambles.

It was never going to succeed and it is squarely on Andrew Coster. Because he made the call personally to conduct that operation in a hurry.

What happened was that the night before, a bunch of Government ministers and the Speaker Trevor Mallard met together, decided they wanted the place cleaned up, and then called Andrew Coster.

After that, Coster decided he wanted an operation and made the order. Wellington police were told at 10pm they needed to clean the place up.

At 8 the next morning, the operation started but police were unprepared. They didn’t have enough time to plan, so they didn’t have a plan, they didn’t have enough staff, they didn’t have enough equipment.

It was obvious before midday the operation would fail, but they kept going until 20 to five before calling it off.

As the report says: The operation that Andrew Coster ordered was unlikely to succeed.

Then the second failure- on the day that they actually managed to clear the place, March 2^nd, they sent officers in without enough equipment.

The officers weren’t allowed hard body armour in case it made the protestors angry. One sergeant borrowed 2 tasers to share between his three squads of up to 20 people, and they brought in recruits who hadn’t even graduated yet.

The guy who borrowed the tasers ended up with a broken clavicle, that is how rough it got in there.

I don’t think this is resignation material for Coster because the worst didn’t happen.

No one died. There were few injuries in the end. The grounds were cleared. And he can thank the front line for saving his skin on that.

But it’s hard to see him being reappointed when his term is up in a couple of years.

Because this report gives the impression of a guy who consistently doesn’t know the right call to make.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former Wellington mayor Andy Foster has opened up about the handling of the Parliament Protest.

It's one year to the day since the 23 day occupation that took over the Parliament Precinct and part of central Wellington was brought to an end by police.

Foster told Newstalk ZB's Wellington Mornings Police Commissioner Andrew Coster was put in the difficult situation of how to handle the group.

He says there was a real concern of a breakdown in law and order -- and if the police went in hard they could end up with 100s of people causing damage.

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s that old line about people not caring what you know, until they know that you care.

And if you’ve heard or seen Police Commissioner Andrew Coster over the past 24 hours, you will have picked up that he knows a lot - the caring bit, though, isn’t so obvious.

Because, despite what people on the ground in cyclone-ravaged areas of the North Island are saying about criminal activity going nuts since the big storm, Commissioner Coster is sticking to the lines about reported crime being less than normal.

If anything’s increased, he says, it’s family harm offences.

He does acknowledge, though, that with all the communication challenges —with phones and electricity out— perhaps the reported stuff isn’t a reflection of everything that’s going on. But he’s got his stats and he’s sticking to them.

What’s more, you may have heard the Prime Minister saying on Newstalk ZB that some of the things people have been talking about —like the apparent cases of guns being pointed at people running checkpoints— have been third or fourth hand. And, according to the Prime Minister anyway, no one’s actually reported it to the Police.

Either way, that doesn’t diminish my view that the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point here. We’ve got opposition politicians —and others— saying bring in the Army to help the Police deal with the lawlessness.

And we’ve got the Commissioner responding with a whole lot of numbers which, on the face of it, are accurate. But it is a classic example of why it is so important to show that you care, before banging on about what you know.

We’ve got people saying they feel unsafe and we’ve got the Police Commissioner saying they shouldn’t feel unsafe because the stats don’t back that up. Really comforting.

And I think if you were in Canterbury during the earthquakes, you’ll be able to relate to all this.

Like me, you’ll remember the gun carriers and trucks rolling into town from Burnham every morning. And you’ll remember the soldiers being on duty at all the entry points into the CBD.

I’ll never forget going to Pak n Save one night on Moorhouse Avenue, and coming out of the car park onto Manchester Street and seeing the soldiers on duty and seeing that giant area of darkness over their shoulders that was the CBD.

And I remember whenever I saw them rolling in and out of town, it just made things feel more secure for some reason. That these men and women were here for us.

Don’t ask me to tell you what I thought they were here for or what they were here to do. Sure, they had the roadblocks to take care of but just seeing them coming in and out of town from Burnham made things feel just that little bit more secure.

Which is why I think the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point. He’s telling people in the cyclone areas what he knows (all the stats about crime being down etc), but he’s not showing them that he cares.

He’s not acknowledging that when people’s lives are turned upside down, of course they’re going to be suspicious of things like people taking photos. But in the past 24 hours he’s been saying where that’s been happening, it’s just been people taking photos of all the devastation. “Disaster tourism” as he puts it.

Do you think anyone in Hawkes Bay finds that one bit reassuring? Of course not. Because when you’ve been through a disaster, you’re on heightened alert.

Back in 2011 after the big earthquake, a rumour started doing the rounds that an old volcano in Christchurch was about to go off. Completely wrong. But there were smart people who gave it credence simply because they were traumatised and on alert for every possible threat to their safety.

That will be what’s happening in Hawkes bay and Gisborne. Yes, there will be some crims doing what they know best. Yes, it’ll be business as usual for the gangs. And yes Commissioner, I know the stats don’t necessarily match with people’s fears and concerns.

But this is not business as usual and, if having the Army on patrol in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay makes the people there feel just that little bit more secure (and it would), then the Commissioner needs to stop telling us what he knows and needs to start showing us that he cares.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s that old line about people not caring what you know, until they know that you care.

And if you’ve heard or seen Police Commissioner Andrew Coster over the past 24 hours, you will have picked up that he knows a lot - the caring bit, though, isn’t so obvious.

Because, despite what people on the ground in cyclone-ravaged areas of the North Island are saying about criminal activity going nuts since the big storm, Commissioner Coster is sticking to the lines about reported crime being less than normal.

If anything’s increased, he says, it’s family harm offences.

He does acknowledge, though, that with all the communication challenges —with phones and electricity out— perhaps the reported stuff isn’t a reflection of everything that’s going on. But he’s got his stats and he’s sticking to them.

What’s more, you may have heard the Prime Minister saying on Newstalk ZB that some of the things people have been talking about —like the apparent cases of guns being pointed at people running checkpoints— have been third or fourth hand. And, according to the Prime Minister anyway, no one’s actually reported it to the Police.

Either way, that doesn’t diminish my view that the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point here. We’ve got opposition politicians —and others— saying bring in the Army to help the Police deal with the lawlessness.

And we’ve got the Commissioner responding with a whole lot of numbers which, on the face of it, are accurate. But it is a classic example of why it is so important to show that you care, before banging on about what you know.

We’ve got people saying they feel unsafe and we’ve got the Police Commissioner saying they shouldn’t feel unsafe because the stats don’t back that up. Really comforting.

And I think if you were in Canterbury during the earthquakes, you’ll be able to relate to all this.

Like me, you’ll remember the gun carriers and trucks rolling into town from Burnham every morning. And you’ll remember the soldiers being on duty at all the entry points into the CBD.

I’ll never forget going to Pak n Save one night on Moorhouse Avenue, and coming out of the car park onto Manchester Street and seeing the soldiers on duty and seeing that giant area of darkness over their shoulders that was the CBD.

And I remember whenever I saw them rolling in and out of town, it just made things feel more secure for some reason. That these men and women were here for us.

Don’t ask me to tell you what I thought they were here for or what they were here to do. Sure, they had the roadblocks to take care of but just seeing them coming in and out of town from Burnham made things feel just that little bit more secure.

Which is why I think the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point. He’s telling people in the cyclone areas what he knows (all the stats about crime being down etc), but he’s not showing them that he cares.

He’s not acknowledging that when people’s lives are turned upside down, of course they’re going to be suspicious of things like people taking photos. But in the past 24 hours he’s been saying where that’s been happening, it’s just been people taking photos of all the devastation. “Disaster tourism” as he puts it.

Do you think anyone in Hawkes Bay finds that one bit reassuring? Of course not. Because when you’ve been through a disaster, you’re on heightened alert.

Back in 2011 after the big earthquake, a rumour started doing the rounds that an old volcano in Christchurch was about to go off. Completely wrong. But there were smart people who gave it credence simply because they were traumatised and on alert for every possible threat to their safety.

That will be what’s happening in Hawkes bay and Gisborne. Yes, there will be some crims doing what they know best. Yes, it’ll be business as usual for the gangs. And yes Commissioner, I know the stats don’t necessarily match with people’s fears and concerns.

But this is not business as usual and, if having the Army on patrol in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay makes the people there feel just that little bit more secure (and it would), then the Commissioner needs to stop telling us what he knows and needs to start showing us that he cares.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.