Nicole McKee is the Minister responsible for firearms reform. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The firearms reform and associate justice minister says the Police Association president is throwing his toys out of the cot because he is not getting his own way.
The Police Association's president, Chris Cahill, wants Nicole McKee's portfolio given to the police minister, saying the associate justice minister has excluded the union from consultation on firearms reform.
But McKee told Checkpoint she did not need the Police Association's input when she already had input from police as a whole.
"We're doing targeted consultation scoping on some of the legislative reforms that we want to look to implement during this term of government and while the Police Association feel that they've been excluded, we have actually included New Zealand Police who represent all of the frontline, not just those that belong to the union."
Police union boss writes letter about Nicole McKee
McKee said the Police Association would get a chance to make a submission during the Select Committee process.
"No piece of legislation has actually been drafted yet and we have said that all legislation will go out for consultation, will be available at select committee," she said.
"There is no need for every single entity to be involved in that at this very early stage and [the] Police Association will have the ability to be able to present their views in the very near future as we start to bring these proposals to fruition."
McKee added that the groups which had been consulted with were set up by the previous Labour government, and, as far as she was aware, the groups had not changed since then.