Bush’s position untenable
It’s pleasing to learn Police Commissioner Mike Bush is looking forward ‘‘to clarifying all matters raised recently’’ about the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha.
In a statement this week, Bush added ‘‘the reputation of police is our priority’’.
This must not simply refer to an exercise in damage control. Rather, the force’s reputation can only be aided by a full airing of the facts behind Haumaha’s appointment and in evaluating Bush’s judgment.
Reports by NZME this week raise questions about this and if Bush has in fact always thought about the reputation of the organisation he leads.
The inquiry into Haumaha comes after it emerged victims’ advocate Louise Nicholas complained to police top brass about his appointment.
When she went public in 2004 with allegations former assistant commissioner Clint Rickards and former officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum pack-raped her in the 1980s, Haumaha, their mate, dismissed her claims as ‘‘just absolute nonsense’’.
Nicholas says it was clear Haumaha tried to block an investigation, as the officer defended his friends as good men. By the time Rickards, Shipton and Schollum were found not guilty at a 2006 trial, the latter pair were in jail on other rape charges.
Haumaha has since apologised for the stance he took, saying it doesn’t reflect his views now.
In the past decade, police culture has changed dramatically for the better and there is no reason to doubt Haumaha’s sincerity. But there are obvious reputation risks to his appointment into the top echelons of police and this week’s NZME reporting indicates Bush was aware of this.
It appears deputy commissioner Mike Clement, second-in-command of Operation Austin, sparked by Nicholas’ 2004 complaints, warned Bush about Haumaha.
This is dynamite to an inquiry looking at whether the State Services Commission was given, or gathered, all relevant information during Haumaha’s appointment process.
If the inquiry finds Bush was forewarned and failed to pass this information on, his position as commissioner is untenable.
And it wouldn’t be the first time Bush’s judgment was found wanting.
In a eulogy at the funeral of the disgraced Bruce Hutton in 2013, Bush used the word ‘‘integrity’’ to describe one of two policemen a royal commission found planted evidence to secure disgraceful murder convictions against Arthur Allan Thomas, in perhaps the grossest example of injustice in New Zealand.
How Bush could think his comments appropriate and in keeping with good PR for the police is unfathomable.
The police rely on trust and public confidence to do their jobs and, by and large, officers return the favour through their sterling service.
However, the person in charge must also live up to these expectations.
In Bush, we appear instead to have a relic from the pre-2004 days of secrecy. In 2018, this is an anomaly.
It appears deputy commissioner Mike Clement, second-in-command of Operation Austin, sparked by Nicholas’ 2004 complaints, warned Bush about Haumaha.