Andrew Coster will leave his position early to head the revamped Social Investment Agency, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Coster goneburger
The timing was somewhat unexpected, but the announcement itself had been anticipated for a while. It was confirmed yesterday, as Stuff reported here, that police commissioner Andrew Coster would be stepping aside from his position and moving to become chief of the Social Investment Agency. Coster’s term as commissioner was due to end in April, but would now conclude in early November. “Policing is an incredibly rewarding and satisfying career and I am proud to have been part of this organisation for nearly 28 years,” Coster said.
Acting public service commissioner Heather Baggot welcomed the appointment, calling Coster a “highly respected and impressive public service leader”. While senior members of the government had only glowing reviews of Coster yesterday, that’s not how it’s always been.
‘Cuddles Coster’ the ‘wokester’
Coster has been police commissioner since 2020, appointed under former prime minister Jacinda Ardern. “I’ve observed [Coster’s] passion for a police force that knows its strength lies in what it can achieve with the community it serves,” said Ardern at the time. It didn’t take long for National, then in opposition, to take issue with Coster. For National, Coster was part of a regime that they considered soft on crime, particularly around gangs, explained Andrea Vance in a profile for Stuff in 2022. He was labelled “cuddles Coster” by his critics, reportedly including some current cabinet ministers, while ex-MP Simon Bridges accused him of being a “wokester”.
Since taking office, the coalition government has tempered its criticism of the outgoing commissioner – though not immediately. Shortly after the election, explained Jared Savage and Sam Sherwood for the Herald (paywalled), police minister Mark Mitchell labelled the “policing by consent” model championed by Coster under Labour a “failure”, and urged a return to “back-to-basics” policing. Coster had previously defended the approach by referencing violent clashes with the police over issues like Black Lives Matters in the US. “That is what it looks like when police lose the consent of their communities.”
In December, police minister Mark Mitchell ultimately confirmed Coster had his full support – though it took a while for him to make that declaration. The pair have fronted several policy announcements in recent months as the government pushes ahead with its agenda.
Who could take his place?
Coster’s early departure was convenient for the government, given it allows them to bring someone of their choosing into the top police job earlier than expected (given the commissioner position is independent of the government, it’s hard to boot someone out without very good cause). Coster, reported the Herald’s Claire Trevett, urged the government to keep the police commissioner role politically neutral. “We have to do our best to sit in that politically neutral space, but sometimes that can be hard when issues are being contested very strongly, and inevitably policing gets a reflection on that,” he said.
Speaking to RNZ’s Checkpoint, Police Association president Chris Cahill agreed that politicians had been interfering in operational decisions, and the line “had become increasingly blurred”. Whoever replaced Coster needed to have wide-ranging experience across different areas of policing.
Jared Savage (paywalled) has eyed up the field of possible contenders to replace Coster, concluding that it’s likely to be a two-horse race between deputy commissioner Jevon McSkimming and assistant commissioner Richard Chambers. The selection process is rigorous, however, and includes a selection panel and final approval from the PM and Mark Mitchell.
Social investment is the other end of the spectrum
Speaking on Newstalk ZB last night, Mitchell said he believed Coster was the “perfect fit” to lead the revamped Social Investment Agency. In his new role, explained The Post’s Luke Malpass this morning, Coster will work alongside government to stop people falling through the cracks early in life and ending up welfare dependent or in prison. Speaking to Newstalk ZB moments ago, Coster said he viewed social investment as the “other end of the spectrum” to his role with police.
Despite the previous clashes between National and Coster, this isn’t exactly a demotion. The Social Investment Agency has been given a promotion under the coalition after falling to the wayside under Labour. It was a core tenet of National’s election campaign, a return to a policy and a viewpoint that had been championed most prominently by PM Bill English. “I want social investment in the bloodstream of how we do things in government,” Christopher Luxon said in April. Coster’s new job forms a crucial part of delivering on that, though as the Herald’s Derek Cheng (paywalled) looked at in April, there remain questions about whether the approach is the right one.
Last week, reported Andrea Vance, the agency had secured a budget twice that of its predecessor, the Social Wellbeing Agency, despite severe cuts to the broader public sector.