Is it time for Luxon to sack firearms minister Nicole McKee?

It was surely one of Christopher Luxon’s biggest mistakes since becoming Prime Minister – appointing a former gun lobbyist to be in charge of gun control. Act MP Nicole McKee continues to bring Luxon’s government into disrepute over her conflicts of interest on guns and questionable decision-making processes.

The accumulating concerns about McKee’s suitability for the role of Associate Justice Minister (responsible for firearms) are making it untenable for him to keep her in the role. If Luxon doesn’t act soon, then his government is likely to be severely tarnished on gun control issues.

Latest revelations about Nicole McKee’s relationship to the gun lobby

On Sunday, the New Zealand Herald’s Derek Cheng published an article titled “In the pocket of the gun lobby? Firearms Minister’s messages revealed”. In this, he detailed a number of communications sent between Nicole McKee’s Beehive office and the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (Colfo), a gun lobby group. The messages reveal a lot of coordination and information sharing between the gun group and McKee’s ministerial office.

The article leaves the impression that the Minister remains exceptionally close to the gun lobby groups that she was part of before going into politics. This raises the question of whether there is a conflict of interest in McKee’s role in carrying out gun reform. Her critics, such as Police Association President Chris Cahill, suggest that she does not have the impartiality necessary for the public to trust in her decisions. He says: “She’s at the beck and call of Colfo. They’re still very, very closely linked, and have the same agenda.”

McKee used to be Colfo's spokesperson. And in her role as an advisor on gun control to the last National Government, she was infamously influential on Police Minister Paula Bennett, who decided not to close the loophole that the terrorist Brenton Tarrant then exploited to get access to military-style semi-automatic firearms (MSSAs) that the used to kill on 15 March 2019.

McKee then became an Act MP and Minister, but remains an active gun user and a member of the gun group NZ Deer Association (NZDA), and this membership also automatically makes her a member of the lobby group Colfo.

The McKee office communications and coordination with Colfo

In addition to having regular meetings with the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (Colfo), McKee has staff members who communicate and coordinate activities with the lobby group. Derek Cheng details this relationship – he reports on dozens of text messages between a McKee staffer in the Beehive and the Colfo spokesperson, Hugh Devereux-Mack, who is also employed by another gun group, the NZ Deer Association (NZDA).

Summing up the texts, Cheng says: “They show co-ordinating over material to be published, confirming Colfo to receive ministerial releases in advance, and sharing information over what was found in Auckland’ raids’.”

The discussions about gun policy in these text messages are one thing, but the liaising over strategy and media coordination is especially revealing. For example, in one case, the gun lobbyist Devereux-Mack checks with McKee’s office before making a social media post about gun reform. The McKee staffer then encourages different wording to be used, and when the lobbyist agrees to that, the staffer says: “Much much better thanks. Boss is happy now.”

In another example, McKee’s office requests that Colfo provides some events that the Minister can attend, explaining: “Keen to get her out and about and the calendar is looking light.”

The close, two-way relationship has provoked McKee’s critics to question whether she can continue in her gun control role. Derek Cheng reports Gun Control NZ’s spokesperson Philippa Yasbek saying the various text messages show McKee is “still operating as a gun lobbyist”.

A conflict of interest?

Does McKee’s gun lobbyist background and continued close relationship with gun associations make her ministerial role problematic? Her defenders are quoted in Derek Cheng’s Herald article suggesting that McKee’s situation isn’t unique and that she is being unfairly “demonised”.

For example, Colfo’s Hugh Devereux-Mack argues that McKee’s lobbying background is helpful for the Government decision-making: “Having ministers with experience in their portfolios is an asset for the country as they are aware of the impact on the community legislation has, and help create practical, achievable and effective legislation.” And Cheng reports that Devereux-Mack believes other ministers are in the same position: “He noted Police Minister Mark Mitchell is a former police officer, Hunting and Fishing Minister Todd McClay is a hunter, and Health Minister Shane Reti is a doctor.”

Of course, the examples are not actually parallels. Those other ministers were simply employees or practitioners. They weren’t lobbyists for those sectors. McKee has essentially gone through the lobbying “revolving door” to a position of regulating firearms. And she can be expected to go back to lobbying after being in politics. What’s more, Mckee’s unique problem is that she appears to give special access to her former lobby group, which is not something that those other ministers are accused of.

The Minister also owns a firearms safety business, Firearms Safety Specialists. According to Cheng’s article, the consultancy is not currently trading, which means McKee hasn’t registered her business as a conflict of interest with the Cabinet Office. Yet, presumably the future prospects of her firearms business will be heavily impacted by the firearms decisions that McKee makes.

Will the Government re-introduce military-style semi-automatics?

Nicole McKee campaigned last year for the public to have greater access to military-style semi-automatic firearms (MSSAs), with her Act Party adopting this as their official policy. These were the lethal guns that were banned after the Christchurch mosque shootings.

This raises the question of whether, as the Minister responsible for gun control, McKee will liberalise the rules around MSSAs. Both McKee and Prime Minister Luxon have been challenged on this question, and they both essentially refuse to answer.

For McKee, the simple way to avoid answering the question is to assert that MSSAs have never been banned, pointing out that some gun owners such as pest eradicators, are still allowed to use such weapons. She disingenuously says “you can’t reintroduce something that never left”. She accuses the Labour Party of lying and fearmongering over the issue.

Such sophistry aside, there’s a genuine chance that the Government will loosen the rules about access to MSSAs as part of the coalition agreement between National and Act in which the Arms Act 1983 is to be rewritten before the next election. And both McKee and Luxon say that those discussions over MSSAs are still to happen.

When directly questioned on whether she would rule out liberalising access to MSSAs, McKee has told RNZ: “What I do commit to is making sure that we listen to all stakeholders and the community when we go through a process”.

Luxon has also given some indication that a Cabinet discussion on liberalising MSSAs is on its way. The Prime Minister was asked in Question Time recently by Labour leader Chris Hipkins whether the Cabinet would allow McKee to “increase access to semi-automatic weapons”. And the PM replied “Cabinet has not had the discussion about access to semi-automatic weapons. When it does, it’ll come back and be discussed fully.” Discussing this, RNZ’s Phil Smith says that Luxon appears to have acknowledged “that Cabinet will indeed discuss the possible opening up of who can have and use semi-automatic weapons.”

Will the firearms register survive under the new government?

Act has consistently opposed the firearms registry established after the March 15 atrocity. And last year, Nicole McKee campaigned strongly for scrapping it entirely. Now that she’s in charge of the registry, she is undertaking a review of it.

No one from the Government will commit to keeping the register. Last week, Stuff’s Tova O’Brien reported Prime Minister Luxon saying “we are reviewing the firearms register, there’s no decision that we’re not going to have a firearms register.” Meanwhile, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says he backs the Police’s support for a register, saying “I’ve always advocated for a gun register. I’ve always said that I think a gun register is extremely important for public safety.”

Mitchell is also reported by O’Brien as pointing to the Government’s support of the Police’s request for a gang patch ban, saying “he would like to see that same unilateral support for the police extended to maintaining the firearms register and the ban on semi-automatics”.

How much public consultation will occur in gun reform?

Nicole McKee’s consultation with the public over gun reform has been somewhat uneven. Mostly, it’s been gun clubs that the Minister has been keen to get feedback from. Controversially, the Police Association has complained about being sidelined.

There’s a chance that many changes made in this portfolio will occur without extensive consultation, especially in the normal legislative sense, involving select committee scrutiny and public debate. This is because the Arms Act allows the Minister to change the definition of a prohibited firearm by “Order in Council” rather than going through Parliament to change legislation. The Order in Council procedure is meant to allow Cabinet to regulate new guns coming onto the market quickly. This means that the minister simply changes the definition of a prohibited firearm in the regulations.

Currently, the Minister in charge of this is the Minister of Police. But Act have convinced National to shift the responsibility from the Police portfolio to the Justice one. There’s some logic in the proposal, but the main concern of Act seems to be to get the decision-making further away from the Police, and under the control of McKee (rather than National’s Mark Mitchell).

RNZ’s Anneke Smith has reported what this change involves: “Cabinet has agreed this power should move from the police minister to the firearms minister, meaning McKee could suggest what guns, magazines and ammunition are prohibited. This legislation still needs final Cabinet sign-off before it goes to the House for its first reading.”

McKee has already used the Order in Council procedure to remove the regulations on gun clubs and shooting ranges, which she argued was too restrictive and burdensome. The changes were therefore made mainly in secret, without public consultation, with McKee arguing the changes were only minor technical alterations.

The Herald’s Derek Cheng, however, has reported earlier this month that the advice from Ministry of Justice officials was against the changes, as McKee’s arguments were based on “an untested assumption” and the changes “would undermine public safety”.

Also, reported on these official Ministry of Justice briefings 1News’ Thomas Mead has said that “officials raised the alarm about a change to the Arms Regulations in May, saying they were being processed under a ‘short time frame’.” He also reported Public law expert Professor Andrew Geddis saying “the public had been shut out of the process” and using the Order in Council method for changing the gun club regulations was “probably not the right way to make law”. Geddis said: “This allows the order in council process to become the Minister’s own personal way of making law.”

What happens if McKee stays in the firearms role?

Some commentators are asking why the Government appears to be under the sway of the gun lobby. For example, Stuff’s Tova O’Brien asked last week why Prime Minister Luxon continues to strongly the back the Police on some policy issues that they campaign on – such as banning gang patches – but doesn’t back the Police when it comes to firearms. The Police Association has been outspoken about Luxon's need to sack McKee.

Clearly some contradictions exist within Cabinet. It’s hard to imagine that Mark Mitchell is the only Cabinet Minister uneasy about the Police being sidelined on gun issues, and the public often being left out of consultation.

Those contradictions can only be papered over for so long. At the moment, the question of whether military-style semi-automatic guns are made more accessible can be fended away by ministers saying that this is a decision for the future. But that issue will soon need confronting.

Luxon currently looks weak in having to back up McKee as she continues to push forward on Act’s more libertarian agenda on gun control. But it’s hard for him to do otherwise – he appointed her to the role, knowing full well that she had been a staunch advocate and lobbyist for deregulating gun control. Therefore, he’s in something of a bind. He has to either “back her, or sack her”.

But it’s clear that McKee will carry on in her radical direction and will continue to work hand in glove with the gun lobby. Luxon will need to be willing to back this, which is eventually going to start tarnishing his administration more intensely – especially once high-powered “killing machines” are back on the agenda to be made more freely available. He might then finally be keener to sack McKee.

Dr Bryce Edwards

Political Analyst in Residence, Director of the Democracy Project, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington

Key Sources

Derek Cheng (Herald): In the pocket of the gun lobby? Firearms Minister’s messages revealed (paywalled)

Derek Cheng (Herald): The official warnings over Minister Nicole McKee’s proposed changes to gun clubs and shooting ranges (paywalled)

Lianne Dalziel (Newsroom): Just say the words, Minister: Military. Style. Weapons. Will. Remain. Banned

Justin Hu (1News): Firearms Minister grilled on Govt’s reforms and her record

Thomas Mead (1News): Officials raise alarm after McKee makes rapid gun law change

Tova O’Brien (Stuff): PM struggles to explain why he backs the police on gangs, but not guns

Russell Palmer (RNZ): Gang, gun law changes ‘absolutely’ followed correct process - Luxon

Anneke Smith (RNZ): Firearms Minister Nicole McKee won’t rule out trying to bring back banned guns

Phil Smith (RNZ): The House: Analysing government answers on guns

Shane Te Pou (Herald): Firearms reform: Why the Government must shoot down Nicole McKee’s AR-15 agenda (paywalled)

Amelia Wade (The Post): Gun minister challenged on firearms company conflict of interest (paywalled)