Former Police Commissioner Andrew Coster’s interview with Jack Tame on Q&A is a bomb that has blown apart what little remained of Chris Hipkins’ political credibility. The timeline is clean, simple and devastating. It shows that Hipkins was fully briefed about Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming’s affair with a younger woman long before the matter erupted publicly. When the scandal finally broke, Hipkins reverted to his favourite political defence. He knew nothing. He remembered nothing. He was never told.
Coster’s account makes that position impossible to swallow.
According to Coster, he first learned of the affair in late 2020. The issue resurfaced in 2022 during preparations for a statutory appointment process, and before that process began he briefed the Minister of Police. That minister was Chris Hipkins. He told him everything. The affair with a younger woman. The breakdown of the relationship. The barrage of emails being sent to family, church members and officials.
Despite this, Hipkins later behaved as if the entire situation was news to him.
This pattern is becoming familiar. During Covid, Hipkins stood at podiums and claimed no one was “mandated” to take the vaccine, even as New Zealanders were being sacked for declining it. He has long relied on technicalities, word games and selective memory to shield himself from accountability. When pressure arrives, Hipkins does not front. He retreats into vagueness. He shrugs. He suggests the matter is procedural. He waits for the public to lose interest.
This Coster interview makes that strategy look far more deliberate than bumbling. It shows a minister who was briefed early, briefed clearly and briefed personally. It shows a politician who cannot credibly claim ignorance. It shows a troubling habit of letting processes unfold while withholding what he knows from the public.
For someone who markets himself as a straight-talking everyman, this is a serious problem. Hipkins trades on a persona of harmless good humour, the bloke who loves a good sausage, the guy who just wants everyone to get along. Behind that image sits a consistent pattern of evasion. When answers are required, he dodges. When responsibility looms, he distances himself. Now, as questions swirl about his own judgment and conduct, he carries on as though none of it matters.
New Zealanders are entitled to expect honesty from ministers, especially on matters involving senior police appointments. Coster’s testimony exposes a gap between what Hipkins knew and what Hipkins allowed the public to believe. That gap should concern anyone who still expects integrity in public office.
Hipkins has spent years pretending he is the innocent bystander of his own political career. But this time, the Commissioner of Police himself has removed the disguise. The truth is clear. Hipkins was briefed. He knew precisely what was unfolding. And he kept quiet.
It is long past time for him to whūk right off out of New Zealand politics.
