The Haumaha affair gets murkier

Stuff reports:

Police Minister Stuart Nash says he isn’t mates with under-fire cop Wally Haumaha, but he admits referring to him in a jokey gym video. …

Now it has emerged that Nash had enough of a personal relationship with Haumaha to call him out in a jovial video he posted of himself working out in the Parliament gym.

The April 25 video, posted to Nash’s Facebook page, is captioned: “Peeni Henare, Wally and Alf – just calling those out who doubted… all in the name of trying to keep the ageing body in some sort of shape. Hard work on a parliamentary diet :-)”

This suggests a pretty strong personal relationship if you tag someone in a video. The Minister of Police will of course know all the senior Police officers, but you’d expect the relationships to be professional.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in Porirua, announcing a new mental health facility when she was informed of the apparent “matey” relationship between her police minister and Haumaha.

She said she was frustrated at these details being “drip fed” through the media.

Well if they had done a proper quick inquiry in the first place, then they wouldn’t have these problems.

Ardern would also not be drawn on whether she had been informed the pair may have been friends before the appointment of Haumaha.

She said she did not know how close they were, or whether their relationship could even be described as “friends”.

By itself this is nothing. But it is unhelpful when there is an inquiry into his appointment.