Listen Now: 
September 24, 2024
Praise for Coster as Police commissioner quits early
Adam Gifford
Posted On September 24, 2024
Download AudioFormer Police deputy commissioner Wally Haumaha says Andy Coster has been a commissioner who was prepared to listen to and work with Māori.
Commissioner Coster is stepping down in November, five months early, to take up a new role heading up the government’s Social Investment Agency.
He confirmed in July he would not seek a second term.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has made it clear he’s unhappy with Mr Coster’s approach to policing.
Mr Haumaha says his former boss came into the role in April 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and one of the first issues has to confront was whether iwi could create checkpoints to enforce lockdowns.
“Given the history of Māori in 1918 and the rewharewha, the plague that saw a lot of poor people dying from that pandemic, we said we needed to protect those communities and the kaumātua in those areas so we formed a great alliance with communities all over the country in the form of iwi checkpoints. We knew it upset a lot of people but at the time he held the ground,” he says.
Wally Haumaha says Mr Coster’s navigation of the occupation of Parliament Grounds also showed his character and resilience.
RELATED NEWS
