Monthly Archives: February 2022

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand will be the principal speaker at Harvards 371st Commencement on May 26, the University announced Monday.

Prime Minister Ardern is one of the most respected leaders on the world stage and we are delighted she will join us in May to celebrate the Class of 2022, said Harvard President Larry Bacow. From climate change and gender equality to COVID-19, she has modeled compassionate leadership that has brought together empathy and science-based solutions to address the most challenging issues of our time. I very much look forward to her address.

Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, to a police officer and a school cafeteria worker, Ardern graduated from Waikato University in 2001 with a degree in professional communications and international relations. She pursued a career in politics, working for New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark before moving to the U.K. to serve as a senior policy adviser in the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ardern joined New Zealands Parliament as a member of the Labour Party in 2008. At that time she was the youngest member of Parliament. After almost a decade of service, she was elected to lead the Labour Party in 2017. Ardern became Prime Minister later the same year. She is the third woman to govern the country, and the youngest person to hold the office in more than 150 years.

From climate change and gender equality to COVID-19, she has modeled compassionate leadership that has brought together empathy and science-based solutions to address the most challenging issues of our time.

Harvard President Larry Bacow

A self-described pragmatic idealist, Ardern has brought global attention to New Zealands efforts to fight climate change and worked to advance gender equity and womens rights. Re-elected to a second term in a landslide in 2020, Ardern has also put emphasis on diversity and representation in her cabinet, appointing Nanaia Mahuta as New Zealands first Indigenous female foreign minister.

Arderns leadership has also been tested by tragedy. After a gunman killed 51 people in attacks on Christchurch mosques in March 2019, the prime minister was praised for her embrace of the countrys Muslim community. She devised a program for financial assistance for the victims families and moved to reform gun laws in the weeks after the attack, announcing a ban on military-style semi-automatic and assault rifles.

Ardern has won international admiration for her decisive management of the pandemic. At the outset of COVID-19, New Zealand maintained remarkably low infection and death rates. Espousing science-based guidelines coupled with policies designed to support New Zealanders throughout the crisis, Ardern has so far steered the country clear of the pandemics worst consequences.

Arderns numerous honors include the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leaderships 2020 Gleitsman International Activist Award. She has twice been named to Time magazines 100 Most Influential People list, repeatedly been named to the Forbes magazine list of the worlds most powerful women, and topped the Fortune 2021 list of the worlds greatest leaders.

Recent Harvard Commencement speakers include Ruth Simmons, president of Prairie View A&M University; former Washington Post editor Marty Baron; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and the late Civil Rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Ardern will be the 17th sitting world leader to deliver the address. She will also be awarded an honorary degree.

On May 29, Harvard will hold a Commencement celebration for the Classes of 2020 and 2021, whose ceremonies were postponed due to the pandemic. The University will announce the speaker for the event in the coming weeks.

More:

Jacinda Ardern named Class of 2022 Commencement speaker - Harvard Gazette

Parliament offers an ultimatum to protesters, damning report reveals the mental state of our nurses and tensions remain high between Russia and Ukraine in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald

OPINION:

Jacinda Ardern's best path to re-election might be to claim she hasn't been given a fair go to deliver what she promised in 2017.

This week's Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll confirms a return to politics as usual, with the gap between Labour-Green and National-ACT down to just 3 per cent. Across all five public polls conducted this year, the average gap is 5 per cent, down from 2021's 13 per cent.

More alarming for Labour-Green is voters now being evenly split over whether the country is heading in the right or wrong direction. It's a massive change from a year ago when over 70 per cent thought things were going well.

In 2021, pollsters often failed to find a single issue about which National was trusted more than Labour. Now, National is ahead on three key issues: the economy; jobs; and law and order.

These polls were also completed before Omicron numbers surged and the anti-mandate protest around Parliament became a Women of Greenham Common-style occupation.

Since then, voters have seen last Thursday's police operation to clear the rabble inexplicably suspended the same day. When police showed up with long batons the next morning, someone quickly told them to put them away.

The police union now bets Parliament's grounds will remain illegally occupied until at least the onset of winter. Having set up industrial-scale kitchens, the occupiers say they have supplies to feed themselves for months.

Nevertheless, as Ardern said when initially shrugging off the protest, "this too will pass". Even if Covid-19 is still circulating by election day, and the remnants of a camp remain at Parliament, the issue which has dominated politics since early 2020 will be well behind us.

The 2023 election will be fought on the usual ground, including the three issues about which National is already ahead plus leadership and health where Labour remains ascendant, and poverty, housing and education.

17 Feb, 2022 04:00 PMQuick Read

17 Feb, 2022 07:57 AMQuick Read

The general economic environment over the next 18 months will not favour incumbents. The Budget Economic and Fiscal Update on May 19 is unlikely to be as rosy as the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update two months ago.

Right now, Ardern can tell a good story on unemployment, partly because the border has been shut to foreign and many New Zealand workers for two years. Ardern is determined to maintain that, by "rebalancing" immigration policy, which means keeping it ultra-low. Nevertheless, unemployment will inevitably rise from December's 3.2 per cent.

High inflation will persist longer than expected thanks to Labour-Green efforts to mitigate its effects on the poor, including raising benefits and the minimum wage plus Adrian Orr's apparent belief that inflation is now something to largely just "look through".

Grant Robertson's "one-off" $10 billion Budget spend-up between now and the election, mainly on climate change and health, will further stimulate demand. Labour MPs worried about their seats must hope the positive vibe from his new projects will outweigh voters' misery from the higher prices they'll cause.

Ardern's formal prime minister's statement to Parliament two weeks ago was dominated by Covid, which has served her so well. But the second half outlined an ambitious 2022 reform programme, much drawing on themes from 2017.

"The Government's economic plan," she said "is to build a high-wage, low-carbon economy, that provides economic security in good times and bad. It is focused on increasing the value of our exports, developing new markets, and investing in skills, new technology, modern infrastructure, and research and innovation to drive productivity, reduce emissions and increase wages."

On top of finally opening the border and resuming tourism this year, Ardern promises to personally lead trade missions to Australia, Asia, the US and Europe, and complete the free-trade agreements with the UK and EU.

The balance of her economic programme is deeply linked to climate change.

Perhaps aware that the Government's Emissions Reduction Plan, due by May 31, will not show a clear pathway to the Climate Change Commission's budgets using existing technology, Ardern promises to put "innovation and clean technology at the heart of our economic transition". Government grants will help develop new technologies and "support businesses to become early adopters of technology and global leaders ready to seize the markets of tomorrow".

The Government will push a new "national integrated farm planning framework", light rail in Auckland and the New Zealand Battery Project, code for the Lake Onslow proposal the Beehive backs. Nearly $60b will be spent on infrastructure over the next five years, Ardern claims.

The health reforms will be completed this year, the resource management legislation introduced and the four new water entities established. Fair pay agreements will be introduced. All teachers from early childhood centres to secondary school will go on a unified pay scale.

Inevitably, Ardern promises more houses and plans to reduce poverty and inequality. The scale of ambition is breathtaking, just as it was in 2017. Wisely, though, Ardern has learned from KiwiBuild not to quantify her objectives.

The problem is that there is very little reason to think Ardern's Government will prove more competent at achieving a "year of delivery" in 2022 than when she asked for it in 2019. Not just senior officials but the rest of the Beehive are increasingly sceptical of the scale of ambitions churned out by Ardern's PR machine compared with the competence and political will to make them happen, especially in the face of public opposition.

Yet Ardern can remain confident. She still has her global brand to project back to her base. There are no serious TV current affairs programmes in New Zealand to hold governments to account before voters.

It won't matter, for example, if the gaps in Ardern's Emissions Reduction Plan are papered over with promises of as-yet-unimagined new technologies. And a hunk of Ardern's personal support is rusted on, in the form of people who sincerely believe she did not just save lives in the abstract, but their life personally.

For such voters, Ardern can simply return to her 2017 rhetoric, explaining her first term was constrained by Winston Peters' handbrake and her second by Covid. Give me a third term, she'll say, and she'll finally deliver whatever the "this" was, when she promised "let's do this" in the exciting first days of her leadership.

Christopher Luxon and David Seymour can't compete on that ground. They'll need to offer something more substantial than voters have become used to since 2008 if they are to defeat her.

- Matthew Hooton is an Auckland-based public relations consultant.

Read more from the original source:

Matthew Hooton: One last chance left for Ardern to deliver - New Zealand Herald

Artworks by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Karen OLeary of Wellington Paranormal and New Zealand artist Tim Christie are to be auctioned to raise money for Wellingtons BATS Theatre.

Launched on Valentines Day, the week-long auction of bespoke Valentines Day art card pieces coincided with the start of the theatres new donor programme which, if successful, would allow it to keep its shows accessible for audiences.

If it wasnt for donations, sponsorship and funding, BATS would have to charge $150 a ticket, the theatres partnerships manager, Lyndee-Jane Rutherford, said.

Tickets are $16.50 on average currently. The new programme would allow donors to provide a small one-off donation, a large one-off donation for lighting gear, or sign up to regular giving.

Michiel van Echten

From left, BATS staff Stevie Greeks, Pearl Kennedy, Michaella Simpson, and Lyndee-Jane Rutherford with the artworks.

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Since the pandemic began 87 shows at BATS have been cancelled, with hundreds more affected. That represented about $100,000 in trading revenue each year of the pandemic.

Rutherford said the love-themed artworks by Ardern, OLeary, Christie, New Zealand artists Jane Blackmore, Glenn Ashworth, Richard Boyd-Dunlop, and Nic Marshall who brought The Muppets to Wellington were unbelievably sweet.

Arderns piece is a signed, framed black card with the text: All you need is [love] (and BATS...)

It sums up what were trying to say, Rutherford said.

Michiel van Echten

Michaella Simpson, Pearl Kennedy, Lyndee-Jane Rutherford and Stevie Greeks with Arderns piece.

Ardern was the first person to say yes to being included in the campaign, after Rutherford reached out to her via her parliamentary email address, and also the first participant to get her work back to BATS. She came back really quickly [and] followed her brief to a T, Rutherford said.

Ardern is known to have attended the pandemic-themed play Transmission by Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt during its Wellington run at BATS last year.

After the theatre company organised the prime ministers involvement, it was approached by several visual artists who heard about the fundraising campaign.

Artist Tim Christie said BATS was continuing to run most of its productions in the face of adversity, with social distancing, reduced audiences and strategic timing between shows.

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

Artists rehearse Paper Jam at BATS Theatre earlier this year.

This is a cool initiative to help [them] ride out the storm, he said, adding the collection of artworks would be diverse and interesting.

While visual art sales in the professional art market have been skyrocketing and breaking records since the pandemic began, much live performance art has postponed or cancelled.

BATS had been working on its new donor programme for several months, but made the decision to cancel its in-person unveiling event due to Covid-19, too. The auction would kick-start the fundraising campaign digitally.

The commissioned art was hung in the BATS bar and gallery at the Kent Tce venue, with the auction able to be accessed via the BATS website or Trade Me.

SUPPLIED

BATS has continued performances under the red traffic light setting with reduced audiences.

BATS Theatre, like all arts organisations, needs our love more than ever, Rutherford said.

Ninety-eight per cent of BATS donations were one-offs when people bought tickets to shows, she said.

The ... campaign was planned before the pandemic but now sits at the context of a time when so many individuals involved in the performing arts face ongoing losses and great uncertainty, said BATS chief executive Jonty Hendry.

Whether as an artist, crew member, designer, goods supplier or producer, together we face an even tougher year ahead. The ongoing effect on those making our local art is very concerning.

Ciaran Jack/Supplied

BATS Theatre has lost about $100,000 in revenue each year of the pandemic.

Heading along to a performance at BATS is a wonderful part of living in Wellington the shows Ive been fortunate enough to get along to over the years have always been a great example of the amazing talent we have in Aotearoa, Ardern said in an emailed statement.

We have been working alongside the sector to assist as much as possible with the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme and the Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund. But if an artwork helps, I was happy to provide that too.

Some of Aotearoas most well-known artists, including Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords, started their careers at BATS.

Read the rest here:

Love letter authored by Jacinda Ardern to be auctioned for BATS Theatre - Stuff.co.nz

Jehan Casinader is a Wellington-based journalist and public speaker. He is a contributing writer for Stuff.

OPINION: The word freedom is on many peoples lips right now.

When I think about freedom, I remember why my parents moved to New Zealand in the 1980s: To escape a country where bombings and riots were rife, where political opponents disappeared, and where journalists were killed in broad daylight.

I think about the freedoms Ive enjoyed throughout my life in Aotearoa. Ive moved cities. Ive joined groups. Ive practised faith. Ive voted in free, fair elections. Ive relied on the courts to protect me. As a journalist, Ive challenged politicians on both sides of the House.

Not once have I been silenced.

Stuff

Roxie Mohebbi leads a discussion about the Covid-19 vaccine with immunologist Dr Maia Brewerton and general practitioner Dr Api Talemaitoga as part of Stuff's Whole Truth project.

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So I feel bemused as I wander around Wellington, trying to make sense of placards that are crying out for freedom. Freedom from what, exactly?

The last time I checked, New Zealand was one of the most free countries in the world. In other states, protesters who trashed Parliament grounds would be tear-gassed, arrested or even shot. Here, Police offered to arrange free parking. Doesnt that tell us something about our freedom?

For those who have chosen not to be vaccinated, there's no question that some of their freedoms have been curtailed to protect public health.

The law already restricts Kiwis freedom in a whole range of ways. The question is, are these new restrictions justified? Are they reasonable? Are they proportionate?

Vaccine mandates were introduced while we were fighting Delta, a Covid-19 variant that posed a major threat to our largely unvaccinated population. Models showed unvaccinated people were three times more likely to catch the virus, 20 times more likely to pass it on, and 25 times more likely to be hospitalised.

While Omicron is different, initial data suggests unvaccinated Kiwis are about 27 times more likely to end up in hospital compared with those who are boosted.

But in some ways, all of this Covid stuff feels like a made-up scenario in a school exam, because New Zealand hasnt experienced the death and devastation that other countries have seen.

Most Kiwis havent had to FaceTime loved ones who are lying in ICU units, struggling to breathe. We havent joined Zoom funerals for people who have been killed by this virus. Our healthy young people havent been crippled by the effects of Long Covid.

For two years, we have been hiding from a monster that we havent really seen. Perhaps thats why some people including the protesters think the monster isnt real.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

One placard appears to give an anti-vaccine message, another depicts Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern alongside a cartoon image of a pig.

The members of Convoy 2022 claim their voices havent been heard. In fact, for many months, media have interviewed people who oppose mandates, from midwives to teachers.

Back in December, the front page of the Sunday Star-Times carried the face of an unvaccinated 21-year-old with the headline: I feel like an outcast.

Now that our vaccination rates are high, do we need to have a conversation about whether mandates should continue? Sure. Is it reasonable to expect the Government to offer a timeline to remove them? Yes.

But when you scratch beneath the surface of this protest, you quickly discover that it is not just about unvaccinated people wanting to get their jobs back.

Ross Giblin

This protest is a middle finger to all public health advice and the very idea that Covid should be taken seriously, writes Jehan Casinader.

The majority of protesters arent just anti-mandate theyre anti-Covid. At Parliament, one protester declared: None of us are wearing masks or social distancing, and were all pretty healthy! The crowd erupted into a massive cheer.

This protest is a middle finger to all public health advice and the very idea that Covid should be taken seriously.

If protesters genuinely believed in Covid, they wouldnt be describing it as a scam. They wouldnt be spitting at locals wearing masks. They wouldnt be harassing pregnant MPs. They wouldnt be intimidating schoolkids. And they certainly wouldnt be sharing a portaloo with people who are openly advocating for violence against public figures.

This protest supports a much wider narrative that New Zealand is no longer a free country. Kiwis are being oppressed by evil leader Jab-cinda and her comrades, who use fear and intimidation to control citizens.

Ive lifted these words straight from the protesters placards. Have I cherry-picked these worst examples because I have a political agenda? The protesters will probably accuse me of that. After all, the media are paid by the Government to be their puppets, were told.

These are not fringe views. This language and rhetoric is now well entrenched in pockets of New Zealands society. The evidence can be found across social media, including from senior business leaders on LinkedIn.

Sailor Sir Russell Coutts, who plans to join the protest, has claimed New Zealand is a dictatorship. How many dictatorships offer free tours of Parliament?

MONIQUE FORD/Stuff

One protest placard displays an unflattering picture of PM Jacinda Ardern and labels her a traitor. Another speaks of beautiful things in a Valentine's Day message for freedom fighters.

Expat Kiwi journalist Dan Wootton, a prominent voice in Britain, wrote in the Daily Mail that liberal leaders have used Covid to oppress their people and steal their freedoms.

Theres that word oppress again. He was referring to Jacinda Ardern, Canadas Justin Trudeau, the US Joe Biden and Frances Emmanuel Macron.

Do these leaders really enjoy locking up their citizens and preventing them from contributing to the economy? Do they enjoy racking up huge debt, and having to pay welfare to families and businesses? This logic would be comical, if its implications werent so serious.

Ted Shaffrey/AP

Canadian anti-mandate and freedom protesters in Ottawa.

Im sure most of the Wellington protesters are good people. But many of them are also desperate and scared. When people are isolated, they gravitate towards other people who share their grievances in this case, people who feel betrayed by authority and rejected by society.

Around this group of ordinary folk, there are nefarious forces at work. Well-known agitators continue to spread misinformation. They promote a narrative that the Government is against its own people, and that Kiwis need to rise up and reclaim their rights, using whatever force or means is necessary.

Some of the protesters sound like they have swallowed a political science textbook. Depending on who you listen to, the Government is authoritarian, communist, fascist or socialist. Protesters threaten to conduct citizens arrests on MPs, who they describe as criminals or tyrants working for foreign agents.

Does any of this sound Kiwi to you? Of course not. This imported rhetoric has filtered through online communities and into this group of disenfranchised folk.

Lets call it for what it is. What we are witnessing here is the radicalisation of ordinary people people who are becoming more extreme in their ideology, and in some cases, their behaviour.

Radicalisation doesnt just happen to angry young men who spend too much time on the dark web. Here, radicalisation is taking place in broad daylight on the front lawn of Parliament. No amount of guitar-strumming or bubble-blowing can mask that.

Even after this protest is over, it will only take a few individuals to blow on the embers that are already smouldering to lead to violent outcomes. We have seen this overseas.

Theres no point labelling the protesters as Nazis or members of the alt-right. Instead, lets call them what they are: Hurting, scared people who are vulnerable to being misinformed and manipulated by those who seek to undermine our democracy.

Yes, go ahead and protest against vaccine mandates. Protests are part of a healthy democracy. But its another thing entirely to advance a false claim that the Government has a secret agenda to oppress and harm its own people. No matter what your political stripes are, that affects all of us.

Tom Lee/Stuff

Prime Minister Jacinda Arderns challenge is how to bring the disenchanted back from their extreme beliefs.

Jacinda Arderns biggest challenge is not how to get the protesters to dismantle their tents. Her real challenge is how to bring many of those people back from their extreme beliefs along with the thousands of Kiwis they represent.

This is not about left or right politics. It doesnt matter which party is in government. Its about how we protect the social fabric of our country.

We need to think about the deep social chasms that this protest has exposed. We need to learn how to disagree on policy issues without tearing down the institutions that we should trust to look after our collective interests.

Most importantly, we need to find a way to help the protesters understand that they are not oppressed or lacking freedom. In fact, they have power over their lives, and their choices matter.

Fortunately, most Kiwis know the truth: We are blessed with an abundance of freedom that millions around the world can only dream of.

Read more:

Do the protesters in Wellington even know what 'freedom' means? - Stuff.co.nz

Commentators call him Cuddles Coster. Simon Bridges publicly accused him of being a wokester. And frontline officers have nicknamed him The Lantern (very bright but needs carrying).

So just who is the man in charge of New Zealands police? And why is he taking a softly, softly approach to the rabble of protesters camping on Parliaments lawn and paralysing downtown Wellington?

Coster was a surprise pick for the top job. Rank-and-file officers wanted Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement, a 42-year-veteran of policing.

Clement had worked on Operation Austin, an investigation into historical sexual allegations against former and serving police officers. He won the respect of then-police minister Stuart Nash, who invited him to oversee the gun buyback scheme established in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack. With Commissioner Mike Bush overseas, Nash also asked Clement to run the Whakaari/White Island recovery operation.

READ MORE:* Constable Matthew Hunt remembered a year after he was fatally shot* Police Armed Response Teams dumped because they 'created fear', documents show* Police Commissioner rules out bringing back Armed Response Teams

But Coster interviewed extremely well, and ministers wondered about Clements enthusiasm for the job.

[Clement] was operational, knew it inside out. He was an old-school cops cop, a Beehive source said. Coster is a very smart man. It was a choice between the old-school policing and someone who was going to take police to the next philosophical level.

Samuel Rillstone/RNZ

Andrew Coster was first recruited in 1996, and is the countrys youngest commissioner.

The Government was impressed by Costers ideas on how police should work in a modern, multicultural society, where the Treaty was the basis of race relations, and where the police service had been hauled over the coals for unconscious bias, the source said. It aligned with their progressive policies.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern selected Coster in early March 2020, praising his positivity, inclusion and integrity.

He is not, as the persistent online conspiracy theory asserts, her cousin. Coster was Auckland city area commander between 2009 and 2013, and they met when she twice contested the Auckland Central seat.

Ive observed his passion for a police force that knows its strength lies in what it can achieve with the community it serves, Ardern said, announcing his appointment for a five-year term. At 44, he was the youngest commissioner in the services history.

Gerard O'Brien/Stuff

Coster pictured during the inquest into the deaths of Bradley Livingstone, nine, Ellen Livingstone, six, and Edward Livingstone in 2014.

Coster joined the force in 1996, aged 20. He graduated from Porirua police college the following year, taking out top marks in his wing with the minister of polices prize, and a trophy for computer studies.

Born in Dunedin, he had a privileged upbringing in Auckland, the son of a GP and a nurse. Leaving school he was a telephone salesman before his Christian faith compelled him to join the police.

Deployed as a constable to Mngere, South Aucklands poverty was a shock. It was such a big contrast to my own experience.

A steady rise through the ranks followed, with Coster eventually making detective in 2001. Criminologist Jarrod Gilbert tells a story of how Coster sat multiple detective exams in one day.

The people running them made him stop. He was studying in the car park, sitting one, going back to the car to study another and then sitting that, he said.

Two years later, Coster quit to train as a lawyer. For a brief spell, he was a crown prosecutor at Meredith Connell in Auckland. But within a year, he was back in uniform, as a sergeant, senior sergeant and then district deployment manager in Counties Manukau.

His next promotion was a big one area commander of Auckland City Central, and its Armed Offenders Squad. He launched a crackdown on alcohol-related disorder as the country geared up for the Rugby World Cup, raiding trouble spots including a strip club, and increasing visibility on the busy streets.

Just over a decade ago, demonstrators took over Aucklands Aotea Square, part of Occupy, a global movement protesting against US banks and international money movers. They stayed for months, defying a court order requiring them to move.

After three months, police and Auckland Council security guards moved in, removing tents and equipment and arresting more than 30 people. Within a day, the protesters were back, marching on Auckland central police station before causing considerable traffic disruption and straining the patience of locals.

Lawrence Smith

Protesters from the Occupy movement camped in Aucklands Aotea square for months.

A year later, Coster returned to Dunedin as the district commander for the Southern Police District, the youngest officer to serve in the role. He promised to make it the safest place to live and visit in the world. But he would preside over a particularly dark time.

In January 2014, Edward Livingstone shot and killed his nine-year-old son Bradley and six-year-old daughter Ellen with a 12-gauge shotgun as they slept. He was found dead in the bedroom he once shared with his estranged wife.

Significant failures by police were later revealed. We fell short, Coster admitted as he choked back tears during the final day of the inquest into the deaths.

STUFF

Police say de-escalation is 'the only safe option' at Parliament protest.

Dunedin police didnt record and investigate bullet casings given to the children by Livingstone. They also failed to appropriately follow-up allegations the 51-year-old had trapped their mother in her room and raped her. And they gave Livingstone diversion for breaching a protection order, against national policing policy.

Within a year, Coster was installed in the glass-fronted police national headquarters, with its sweeping Wellington harbour views. He was assistant commissioner responsible for strategy and transformation. For a brief spell, he was seconded to the Ministry of Justice as a deputy secretary, before returning to take up the acting Deputy Commissioner post.

Hes got great policy skills. And you would never, ever question his integrity, hes a good man, says a former officer who worked alongside Coster, and who spoke on condition of anonymity. But hes not the right leader for a police service that is dealing with serious challenges.

Chris McKeen

Coster talks with then-police minister Stuart Nash and National MP Mark Mitchell at the funeral of slain police officer, Constable Matthew Hunt.

Coster took over the $700,000+ a year role as New Zealand was leaving its first Covid-19 lockdown. Police always shine in situations like these, he said of stepping into the crisis. He faced considerable backlash for allowing iwi to establish and man checkpoints.

Within months, he was dealing with the horror of the fatal shooting of Constable Matthew Hunt and the attempted murder of Constable David Goldfinch in June 2020. Eli Epiha was later sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 27 years for Hunts murder.

After the verdict, Coster said there would not be a move towards general arming of officers. An earlier trial of police carrying firearms in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury was scrapped after widespread opposition, particularly in Mori and Pasifika communities. But support for routine arming remains high among the 14,000-strong staff, and it is still a live issue.

Pool/Getty Images

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Coster reveal how police shot and killed a "violent extremist" after he stabbed and wounded six people at Lynn Mall shopping centre in Auckland on September 3, 2021. (File photo)

In September last year, Ardern and Coster addressed the nation following a terror attack in a New Lynn supermarket. Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen was already on the radar of authorities, and a police surveillance team and a specialist tactics group had followed him from his home in Glen Eden. The Government had been trying to deport the lone wolf Isis supporter since 2018.

The father-of threes aspirations grew with the role. He now wants New Zealand to be the safest country. In a series of media interviews, shortly after taking up the job, he also repeated the same story, of how his son wanted to join the police.

He wants to do what his dad has done, he told Stuff. The question I ask myself is, will police be the organisation that gives him the kind of leadership that he needs to thrive?

Costers challenges include accusations of unconscious bias within the service and the growing tentacles of organised and gang crime.

Commentators adopted the Cuddles moniker as gang crime and gun violence escalated, particularly in Auckland. In February, police launched Operation Tauwhiro, a national, long-term operation to target organised crime and prevent firearms-related violence. Over six months, nearly a thousand weapons were seized and more than 856 people arrested. It was extended until next month.

But the perception lingers that police have allowed gangland crime to spiral out of control. Simon Bridges, himself a former prosecutor, went head to head with the commissioner an unusual move for politicians, who tend to reserve their criticism for the police minister.

Frustrated with gang activity in his Tauranga electorate, Bridges publicly branded the commissioner a wokester, claiming he was more concerned with being nice than actually catching criminals.

It led to a fiery exchange during a justice select committee hearing when Bridges continued his attack. Coster argued rising gang figures shouldnt be taken at face value.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Simon Bridges grills Andrew Coster, the man he called a wokester.

The clash heated up over Costers philosophy of policing by consent. Bridges asked: Do the police still arrest people in this country?

Coster describes the theory: We need the vast majority of the public to support us and see what we do as legitimate, so the way we go about our business is fundamentally important.

The public wants a calm, compassionate and confident approach, he argued.

But in the wake of Bridges attacks, Coster denied police had gone soft. We are doing more to target organised crime and criminals than we ever have in the past, he said.

The view is not shared on the front line, the former officer says. The minute he starts talking about policing by consent, his staff give an eye roll. The best way to police by consent is to have the public's trust and confidence. And the best way to do that is to get out there and keep the community safe.

They've moved into a space where people feel that if the police cant deal with the gangs, then who can? It creates fear.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Police National Headquarters, dubbed bullshit castle by officers, is just a few hundred metres from the freedom protest in Wellington.

Coster does not hold the same respect by staff as former commissioners Peter Marshall and Mike Bush, the ex-cop says.

Frontline cops are really bad. They have a natural mistrust of anyone in Wellington. They call police national headquarters Bullshit Castle, he says.

But if they know the commissioner has a reputation of being a good street cop, and got their back, then they'll respond to that.

The perception is that he is an academic and a policy wonk, down on the Beltway for too long and has lost touch with the frontline.

David Hallett/Stuff

Jarrod Gilbert says policing by consent is steeped in tradition.

But crimonologist Jarrod Gilbert, Director of Criminal Justice at the University of Canterbury, says the concept distinguishes New Zealand from other jurisdictions.

Policing by consent has a very long history, he says. It goes back to the principles of Sir Robert Peel, who defined what modern policing was. In England, Peel distinguished between a police force and a police service. One imposed its will on the people, the other had the consent of the people. Thats deeply entrenched in the very best police services around the world.

Gilbert says the principles were lost for a time. Without question, there were long periods in New Zealand policing where might made right. They may solve a problem in the short term, but create longer-term problems.

If you dont have trust in the police service, if you cant look at them and seek assistance then the system falls down. Hence, you see the backlash of Black Lives Matter in the US.

Jim Mone/AP

Black Lives Matter flags line a fence in Minneapolis. (File photo)

Now Coster is grappling with the issue of how to remove the freedom convoy occupying Parliament grounds without bloodshed. The patience of Wellington residents and local business has been sorely tested by the blockaded streets, intimidation, noise and unsanitary conditions.

The incredulous public sees the protesters as winning the battle. They have resolutely defied calls to remove illegally parked vehicles and ignored offers of free parking at the nearby Sky Stadium. Without tow trucks, the police were impotent to enforce Costers promise to move them. And for a time, it seemed the army had taken the phone off the hook when it came to requests for assistance.

Meanwhile, a network of food trucks, kitchens and even a market garden and school have been allowed to spring up, with people able to freely come and go from the encampment. By Friday, protesters were controlling access to the grounds.

Iain McGregor/Stuff

MPs and residents are frustrated by police inaction.

MPs are increasingly frustrated. There is a sense across the House that police failed to act decisively, allowing the demonstration to dig in. And there are questions about the level of police planning, and exercises to prepare for occupations and protests. Some MPs are privately calling for an inquiry into the response. Bridges was publicly scathing calling the response: Dads army without the army.

The former officer echoed the sentiments. They had an opportunity in the first 24 hours to move it and disrupt it. That opportunity has gone past. And its now very difficult and complex. There are hundreds of vehicles. If they start towing, just logistically, its going to take weeks.

Theres a big danger of a flashpoint, and you are going to get a riot with property damage and violence. Really, the only option is to start towing vehicles. Or wait it out, hope they get bored and start to drift off, wait till the numbers get down, and then do an early-morning operation to push people out of Parliament grounds.

Iain McGregor/Stuff

Protestors began controlling access to Parliament grounds on Friday.

One Beehive source said Coster should have immediately taken charge of the operation. For the first eight days, it was led by Wellington district commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell.

They also questioned the visibility of Police Minister Poto Williams, who has not been seen offering support to officers holding the line in front of Parliament buildings. She did not comment publicly for a full 10 days also the length of time it took top national security officials to meet.

Where is Andy? There is a time and place to show leadership. This is a national issue, not just a Wellington district issue, the source said.

There was a point in time when the police could have sorted this out early on. Everyone knew these people were coming. If you want to protest against the Government you come to Parliament, you dont go down to the waterfront.

The police should have known, but they werent ready for this. They were not networked in to what was going on around the country, let alone around the world.

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NZ's top cop: Who is Andrew Coster, the man struggling to deal with the Parliament protests? - Stuff.co.nz