Nick Mills: Politicians should be able to safely walk down the street

Publish Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2026, 1:01pm

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EDITORIAL:

Yesterday morning, Chris Hipkins walked into this studio — and I knew immediately something wasn’t right.

Now I’ve interviewed Chris plenty of times, and I think I know him reasonably well.

Whatever you think of his politics, he’s normally extremely composed, extremely confident, and extremely hard to rattle.

Yesterday he looked rattled.

He looked pale and a bit shocked.

So before we went on air I said, “Are you okay?”

And then he looked me in the eye and it all came out.

He’d decided to walk down from Parliament to our studio to get some exercise.

On the way, a bloke in an SUV started yelling abuse at him.

Okay, shrugged his shoulders as he told me

The Herald actually witnessed part of this — the vehicle did a U-turn, followed Hipkins and a staff member, and the driver was yelling expletives and racial slurs.

Then Chris got a bit more concerned.

Now, hang on a minute.

This is Wellington.

This is our harbour.

This is New Zealand.

We’re talking about the Leader of the Opposition.

A former Prime Minister.

A man who led this country through part of the Covid period — one of the most divisive and angry periods we’ve experienced in modern New Zealand, probably New Zealand history.

And he can just walk around Wellington with no personal police protection?

Hipkins himself doesn’t want a security detail. I respect that.

He said yesterday he wants to live in a country where politicians can walk down the street.

So do I, so do you.

But maybe we don’t live in that country anymore.

And I’ll throw another question at you.

What if this had been a female politician?

If a prominent female politician was followed in a vehicle, confronted on the waterfront, threatened with being thrown into the harbour and then threatened with death, would we be treating this quite so casually?

I don’t think we would.

And yes, Hipkins says encounters like this are a small minority.

Parliament has increasingly had security threats against politicians that have risen since the pandemic.

They admit it’s changed.

But really yesterday should be a warning.

You know what’s happened overseas.

You don’t want to wait until somebody gets assaulted — or worse — before deciding the risk was real.

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