John MacDonald: Coster has no evidence to back up his claims

Whether-or-not you saw former police commissioner Andrew Coster’s TV interview yesterday, you’ll know about the allegations he’s making.

He thinks people are running for the hills after the Jevon McSkimming scandal and aren’t telling the whole story in terms of what they knew and when they knew it.

Especially current police minister Mark Mitchell and former police minister Chris Hipkins.

Isn’t it weird that someone who served in the police for more than 25 years - who, I imagine, determined at some points during that time that there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute - thinks he can make all sorts of accusations without one shred of evidence to prove it?

That’s what I took away from yesterday’s interview. Can you imagine the police charging anyone with an offence with zero proof or zero evidence? Yet that is exactly what Andrew Coster did yesterday.

He made these allegations that Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell aren’t being upfront. Then, in the next breath, admitted that he had no record or evidence to prove it.

That would be “case closed” if it was a police investigation. And, because he can’t prove it, I can’t believe him.

This is someone who spent 28 years looking for evidence of guilt. He’s got no evidence to back-up what he’s saying - so I’m not buying it.

Chris Hipkins and Mark Mitchell are both denying Coster’s claims.

Chris Hipkins says he “was never briefed on Jevon McSkimming's relationship with Ms Z during his time as minister of police or prime minister.

Andrew Coster claims he told Hipkins in 2022 in the back of a car while they were on an official trip in the South Island, when Hipkins was police minister in the Labour government.

And, Mark Mitchell is pushing back big time on Coster’s claim that he knew earlier than 6 November last year.

On Newstalk ZB this morning, he said Coster’s claims were “absolute nonsense”.

He said this morning - as he has since the Independent Police Conduct Authority report came out last month - that he first became aware on 6 November 2024, when Andrew Coster was told by the Public Service Commission to brief him on the situation.

Mitchell says he didn’t buy Coster’s narrative that McSkimming was the victim. He says he’s a father and that he pushed as much as he could as a minister to make sure the woman at the centre of all this was looked after.

So it’s “he says-he says”. But Andrew Coster has no evidence to prove his allegations so I can’t believe him.

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