The revelation he leaked cabinet conversations is just the latest example of the Napier MP failing to hold his tongue.

National MP Simeon Brown did a rare good tweet last night. In the wake of news that Stuart Nash had been sacked from cabinet, he wrote: “A rare misstep from Stuart Nash.”

It’s the type of Twitter-centric joke that Brown is usually the butt of – every time Brown himself does or says something ill-advised, it’s labelled a “rare misstep”. But it works because Nash, too, has a fairly storied history of faux pas. While perceived as a hard-working and generally competent minister, his loose lips mean it’s unsurprising that he’s the one dumped out of cabinet this week for sharing private conversations. 

As we prepare to learn what, if anything, Nash intends to do next in his political career, let’s take a look back at some of the times he’s been caught out saying, doing or simply vibing the wrong thing.

2017: Police and mental health

Just a few months out from Labour sweeping to power under Jacinda Ardern, Nash, then the party’s police spokesperson, made headlines for saying people with mental health conditions probably shouldn’t be police officers. 

“I think there are enough people out there who would make brilliant police officers without any existing mental health condition,” he said. “It’s a lot safer for men and women who want to become police, and for our communities, if people who want to enter the police don’t have an existing condition.”

Nash later apologised, saying his comments were “uninformed and uneducated”. 

2019: Gym stoush

A “loud and uncouth” confrontation broke out between Nash and another individual at the parliamentary gym, it was reported back in February 2019. The incident occurred after a gym-goer wanted to use some equipment that, it was alleged, Nash had been hogging.

Nash has stated many times on the record that he likes to work out and he’s been dubbed the “minister of muscles” by some. It’s unclear whether this week’s cabinet sacking will also see that unofficial ministerial portfolio reallocated.

2019: Airport outburst

In August of 2019 Nash was made to apologise after swearing at an Air New Zealand staffer when he turned up late and couldn’t board his flight.

“I said words to the tune of ‘for beep’s sake’,” Nash told reporters at the time. “You should never shoot the messenger, and I’m the first to admit I perhaps acted in a way that I shouldn’t have.”

As Newshub’s Jenna Lynch pointed out, this particular airline aggression came just a few months after Nash had tweeted his annoyance at a flight being late because “some clown slept in”.

2020: Fishing sector ‘criminals’

Nash upset the fishing sector in 2020 when leaked footage showed him referring to some in the industry as criminals. He was also caught out saying NZ First, then in a coalition arrangement with Labour, was responsible for the delay in getting cameras onto fishing boats. (Nash remains close to NZ First, even after the party failed to get reelected in 2020)

Nash would later say his comments were only about a particular seafood company that had actually been prosecuted (and were therefore, technically, criminals).

2021: Groundswell ‘a mixture of racism and anti-vax’

Just weeks before an angry mob occupied the front yard of parliament, Stuart Nash said in parliament that rural advocacy group Groundswell was full of racists and anti-vaxxers. 

While not a totally discreditable comment – Groundswell certainly played its part in pushing anti-government rhetoric during the Covid-19 pandemic – it caused an unwelcome distraction at a time when some farmers were genuinely concerned about government policy. 

2022: Noodle-eating backpackers

In 2020, Nash launched a clamp down on freedom campers who he said “pull over to the side of the road and… shit in our waterways.”

Two years later and Nash went a step further, saying New Zealand wanted to attract high spending visitors and not just those who “travel around our country on $10 a day eating dried noodles”.

He clarified that while backpackers were still welcome in New Zealand, they were not the government’s priority in the wake of Covid-19.

2023: The Coster call

And so we come to the year of our lord 2023. Not long after becoming one of the more visible faces of the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery in his electorate of Napier, Nash was embroiled in controversy after it was revealed he had called up the police commissioner Andrew Coster to express his upset over a particular court ruling. And how did this phone call come to light? Nash told Mike Hosking about it live on the radio. It was a boast that backfired, with Nash quickly stripped of his prized police portfolio but allowed to hold onto his other ministerial roles.

2023: A cabinet tumble

And not long after that, Nash was demoted down to the very bottom of the cabinet ranking. Two more allegations of misconduct had come to light. One involved another case of Nash improperly commenting on police conduct and then for some reason telling Mike Hosking about it. He was then found to have contacted a senior MBIE official over an immigration case rather than following established procedure. 

It was Nash’s final warning – what could possibly go wrong?

2023: Goneburger 

A couple of weeks later (this week), Nash was officially dumped from cabinet. Prime minister Chris Hipkins said the latest claim, that Nash had disclosed private cabinet conversations with a pair of donors, was inexcusable. He was sacked before even having the chance to resign.

For now (at least) Nash remains the MP for Napier.