Chris Hipkins: Labour leader on the party revealing their list for the 2026 election

Labour's leader says Rakesh Naidoo's decision to run for Labour is all above board - as he comes under fire.

Commissioner Richard Chambers says Naidoo's candidacy makes his role as a senior police officer untenable, and he'll be removed.

Chambers says he only found out last night. 

Chris Hipkins says Naidoo took all the required steps.

"Rakesh Naidoo told his supervisor at police that when he confirmed he was putting his name forward to us last week, we did run a different process for Rakesh because of his role within the New Zealand Police."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thirty newcomers, including a police superintendent on Labour's list for
the November election. The biggest mover of Venushie Walters, who's
now out to eighth and leader Chris Hopkins joins you now,
helly Chris, Kody Andrew, how are you very well? Thank
you man. This is going to be a nice little
chat about your list, but it's grown into so much
more over the last half hour and becoming what we
could affectionately call them I do botch up. You say

(00:23):
everything was done right half an hour ago. Richard Chambers,
the Commissioner, said he didn't know until last night. Mark
Mitchell also says he only found out last night. So
what's going down?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Raqesh? And I do told his manager, his supervisor at police,
when he confirmed that he was putting his name forward
to us last week. We did run a different process
for Rakesh because of his role within the New Zealand Police.
So I'm confident that he's acted with the utmost integrity
in informing the police that he was putting his name

(00:53):
forward for consideration, and then he kept them updated throughout
that process.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So you're claiming that that news didn't go up up
the chain.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, those are questions for the New Zealand Police Rakesh.
When he confirmed, we ran a short process for him.
He didn't go through the full candidate for election process
because we were very mindful when we first had an
informal conversation with him that if he was going to
put his name forward, we would need to work hard
to protect the political neutrality of the police. So he

(01:25):
went to a very shortened process.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Do you know the rules that are in the New
Zealand Police Elections and Political Matters Manual that was published
in December twenty twenty three.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I'm well aware of the rules that are in
the Electoral Act which says that anybody who is in
a public service role needs to stand down from that
role by nomination day. Now we're a long way away
from nomination day.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Okay. Yeah, the manual as published by the Police, So
there are core requirements. You must disclose your intention early,
you cannot campaign well employed, and you must resign before
being nominated as a candidate. If he's on the list,
isn't he nominated.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
No nomination day. Under by law, nomination day is set
and that happens still some months away down the track.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
So you feel you feel that Rakesh actually informing the
commission or the commissioner finding out last night was early enough.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh, certainly the police is an organization were aware of
this before that.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Is he any good?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think Raquet is outstanding. He's one of the country's
first ever sworn police officers of ethnic descent. He has
been involved extensively in the work that police have done
around New Zealand's Marii, Pacific and ethnic communities. And I
think he is a man of an enormous integrity who
will make an outstanding member of Parliament.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
I presume you've got him in line to be a
police minister, but now he's hacked off the police, so
they won't like him as their boss.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, look, I don't give out any jobs before the election.
But that's more of a problem for the police than
it is for us.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
What about poor on Greg O'Connor. He lost how you redrawn?
Of course, the only way he get in is if
he got on the list. He's not on the list,
and now he's basically facing retirement. It's like he announced
his retirement. He's not happy.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Oh, Greg, I think was really unhappy when his seat
was disestablished. So that was nothing that over party could
do anything about. He's been passionate about o'hardio. He's been
an outstanding local MP for Ohario. I think he knew,
you know, when his seat was disestablished, that that may
well be the end of the road ferment. That was
a conclusion that he reached over the weekend and he

(03:38):
made his decision to withdraw his name from consideration.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Craig Greennie, the C to you economist is way down
in the fifties somewhere. I've got it here. He's way
down where there is number fifty one C to you Economists,
big defender of Labor Party policies, but he's way down
the list. He won't get in on the list vote
at this moment, though. He has to stand and wrong
and TI, are you actually challenging this man who's been
a face full servant of Labor to a degree to

(04:02):
actually win a seat against the Greens to then get
some respect.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Oh, he's absolutely all out to win that seat. And
it's pretty standard for my political party's Labor and National
when someone's standing in a seat that they're expected to win,
that they don't get one of the high list spots.
And that happened with me the first election I stood in,
Grant Robertson the first election he stood in. It's pretty
common within the Labor Party on absolutely confident Craig when
he's going to win Wellington Bays and be an outstanding

(04:28):
in peace for Wellington Bays.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
And a bit of ardibardy about the fact that you've
used your entitlements to pay off a mortgage on a batch,
a batch that your family has had for forty years.
How have you still got a mortgage on that thing?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Well, that is not correct. So those facts that you've
just put out there are not back my superannuation. Are
the contributions that I make to my superannuation. I've used
to purchase a family batch when my parents decided that
they wanted to take their money out of it. It's
as simple as that. It is ultimately my super graduation

(05:00):
money that I have contributed into debt scheme. So I
think that's a bit misleading what you've just claimed there.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Okay, But at the same time, when we come to
capital gains tax, you say the family home is exhibit.
The family home is everything you know, if you are
using your entitlements to help out with the family home.
I get it, but this is a holiday home.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, and look, and I'll proudly pay capital gains text
on it when we have the opportunity to introduce the
capital gains text, because those of us who are fortunate
to own secondary homes should be willing to contribute.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Chris, thank you so much for talking to us. That
is Chris Hipkins, Opposition Leader. For more from Hither Duplessy,
Alan Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be from
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