Category: Politics

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Labour leader says it is “unacceptable” that former Former Deputy Police Commissioner Jevon McSkimming’s behaviour was not picked up in vetting for the role.

McSkimming pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual exploitation and bestiality material.

McSkimming performed Google searches on his police devices, primarily his work cellphone, to access pornographic and objectionable publications, over the course of four and a half years.

As prime minister, Chris Hipkins appointed McSkimming to the Deputy Police Commissioner role in 2023, following a recommendation from the then-Deputy Public Service Commissioner.

On Friday, Hipkins said McSkimming’s behaviour was unacceptable, and called for more robust vetting.

“I can say absolutely that with the advice that we were given in Jevon McSkimming’s appointment to the Deputy Police Commissioner role, none of this was identified during that process, and there was a vetting process that was undertaken there,” Hipkins said.

“The fact that there was vetting and it didn’t highlight this shows that the vetting was clearly inadequate.”

In late 2020, police made the decision that six-monthly internet usage monitoring reports, supplied to the senior leadership team, would cease. The summary of facts said McSkimming would have been aware of the change.

McSkimming’s first recorded search took place on 1 July 2020, with the last on 18 December 2024.

In total, there were 5354 searches, around a third of which were adult or pornographic.

A total of 2954 objectionable images were returned from 432 searches that were intended or were “highly likely” to return objectionable images.

Hipkins said it was a “shocking revelation” that McSkimming was using police equipment resources to view the material, and that it went undetected for so long.

“This was going on for four or five years, and it seemed to go below the radar within the police. That shouldn’t have been allowed to happen, so I think there’s a real tightening up that’s needed here.”

Following McSkimming’s guilty plea, Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said the moment he was advised of the circumstances he had taken it “seriously and acted on it.”

“As soon as I was made aware of the nature of the material found, I raised it with the Minister of Police as a conduct matter to allow him to consider Mr McSkimming’s position at the time as a statutory deputy commissioner.

“Mr McSkimming subsequently resigned from police. This conduct has no place in police.”

Chambers also ordered a rapid review of the controls and security of police devices.

“I moved quickly to remedy the gaps it identified and ordered auditing and monitoring of staff use of police devices.

“We will investigate any cases of staff found to have accessed inappropriate or objectionable material and will take action where conduct falls short of standard and expectations.”

On Thursday, police minister Mark Mitchell would not comment on specific matters in relation to a case waiting for sentencing.

“What I will say is that I am proud to support our thousands of sworn and non-sworn staff who perform acts of kindness, courage and service everyday. Individuals who do not uphold the values or display the integrity required to be a member of the NZ Police should be dealt with appropriately.”

Sexual Violence

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Education Ministry’s ministerial approval rating has more than doubled.

The ministry’s 2025 annual report shows Education Minister Erica Stanford rated the ministry seven out of 10 overall for its oversight of the education system, up from three in the previous report.

However, she gave the ministry only four for its policy advice, up from three.

Vocational education minister Penny Simmonds gave the ministry a rating of seven for its overall performance, up from six the preiovus year.

The report showed a big reduction in the ministry’s personnel costs.

The ministry spent $409 million on salaries and wages in 2024/25, down from $555m the previous year.

It spent $2m on consultants, down from $3m the previous year and $138m on contracts for services, down from $180m.

The report showed 52,926 children received specialist learning support in 2024/25 and wait times for support had improved, but remained long.

The average number of days children waited for support were 54 for behaviour support, 80 for communication, 11 for assistance from the ongoing-resourcing scheme, and 117 for the early intervention service.

It showed that only 47 percent of students excluded from a school were placed in another school within 40 days and only 75 percent within 75 days of their exclusion.

“Our regional staff are taking a more active role in following up cases where a learner is not returning to school in a timely manner. This work is being supported with revised guidelines for Stand downs, Suspensions, exclusions and expulsions due to be launched in late 2025,” the report said.

The report said the ministry provided buildings for more student places than forecast (126 percent of forecast), and delivered 92 percent of its building projects on budget and 93 percent on time.

It said half of the new and replacement builds in the 2024/25 year were standard or repeatable designs.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The National Iwi Chairs Forum says it is working towards getting both factions of Te Pāti Māori to a hui in Wellington next week.

The leadership body has been liaising with the party’s leadership and estranged MPs Mariameno Kapa-Kinga and Tākuta Ferris in an effort to stop the party splitting up.

Ngāti Kahungunu chair Bayden Barber met with co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa Packer and Rawiri Waititi on Tuesday, and said he had received a commitment from them to meet the other faction.

He sat down with Ferris on Thursday.

“He agreed to meet at a marae here in Wellington, so that was pleasing.”

Kapa-Kingi was not available for the meeting, he said.

“She’s always been quite firm that she wanted to meet with her people in the north, Tai Tokerau, so I’m assuming that was the reason, but there was no official reason given.”

“We hope to be able to be in contact with Mariameno as well but we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Barber confirmed party president John Tamihere had not been at either of these meetings, but the Forum had had “a number of conversations” with him on the phone.

A potential meeting next week was still to be confirmed, but Barber was hopeful the two factions could patch things up.

“We’re always optimistic until told otherwise, but it was a very constructive meeting with Tākuta on Thursday, as was our meeting with the party leaders on Tuesday.

“That’s pleasing, but until we’re actually at a hui together, there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Te Pāti Māori general manager Kiri Tamihere-Waititi, daughter of John Tamihere and wife of Rawiri Waititi, posted several monologues on Instagram about the conflict.

Barber said iwi leaders had asked both sides to stop the online tit-for-tat.

“One of the things we did talk about with party leaders on Tuesday and with Tākuta on Thursday was to put a moratorium or a ceasefire on social media barbs.

“My feeling was that there was agreement to it. That was my feeling, without having it in writing, that having goes at each other online is not helpful for finding a resolution.”

Barber said it would not be good if the party split up.

“If that happens, that’s not the outcome we’re looking for. We’re looking to reconcile everything. Reconciliation is the best outcome.

“Having a split totara log is only good for the fire. That whakataukī, the proverb, that’s been spoken of a number of times in these conversations.

“Twelve months out from an election, to have a party split, that’s going to be a tough challenge.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand