Hipkins backs cop's Labour run as police boss, minister slam timing

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has backed the handling of Superintendent Rakesh Naidoo's addition to the party's list for the upcoming election after criticism from the Police Commissioner and Police Minister about the timing of when they had been made aware of his political run.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told 1News yesterday he was not told of Naidoo's political tilt until Thursday, when a supervisor informed him Naidoo was considering a candidacy, and did not learn he had accepted a place on Labour's list until Sunday afternoon, the day before the announcement.

"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."

He described Naidoo's position as "untenable" and said police were now in discussion with him about the period of leave he would be required to take ahead of the election.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell said he was troubled by the timing of the disclosure.

"I am particularly disappointed that Mr Naidoo was recently included in sensitive briefings in relation to public safety and government policy and has been attending events with me as recently as yesterday afternoon," he said.

"In my view, it is critical that the public can have confidence that police are politically neutral. The respectful and right thing to do would have been for Mr Naidoo to be transparent and disclose his intentions from the outset."

Speaking to Breakfast, Hipkins said Naidoo had acted with "utmost integrity", describing Mitchell's position as "unreasonable".

"I've been a minister of police. If a member of the police force had decided to put their name forward for consideration by the National Party, I would expect the police organisation to know about that. I wouldn't expect to have known about that until after the decision had been made."

Hipkins confirmed Labour first approached Naidoo a couple of months ago to gauge his interest, but said Naidoo only made his final decision to proceed last week, at which point he informed his police superiors.

What the police then did with that information, Hipkins said, was a matter for them.

Hipkins said he felt the response from the police boss had been heavier than warranted.

"I think some of the language that has been used here is unfair on Rakesh Naidoo, who I think has acted with absolute integrity."

Labour had agreed to put Naidoo through a truncated candidate selection process due to his police position, appearing solely in front of the moderating committee that puts the list together.

His ranking at 13 on the Labour party list would likely see him elected to Parliament as a List MP on current polling numbers. Naidoo is the national partnerships manager for ethnic, iwi and communities at the New Zealand Police.

He was one of several first-time candidates on Labour's list this year with a shot at getting into Parliament, alongside unionist Chris Flatt, broadcast executive Kingi Kiriona, Kāpiti Coast councillor Sophie Handford, barrister Max Harris and Warrick Cleine.