Former Labour minister Stuart Nash is set to take up a new gig at a global recruitment firm. 

Nash, who represents the Napier electorate, announced he would be leaving politics this year after 12 years as a Labour MP, nearly six of which were spent as a cabinet minister. 

He confirmed to ZB PLUS on Wednesday morning that he will join Robert Walters as commercial director reporting to Shay Peters, who is the head of the New Zealand and Australian business. 

The pair will be based out of Wellington. 

Robert Walters NZ, who didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, is a supplier under the All of Government (AoG) Recruitment Services Panel and has been heavily involved in the recruitment of contractors and employees to a number of government ministries. 

It’s understood he will join after October 14’s election. 

During his time round the cabinet table, he held portfolios including police, economic development, forestry and tourism. 

He was sacked as a minister earlier this year after a string of scandals, including leaking confidential cabinet information to donors and revealing he had spoken to Police Commissioner Andrew Coster about whether he would appeal a case. 

During his exit interview with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking, Nash said he was leaving politics with his “head held up high”. 

“It’s time to go.” 

Speaking about the controversy which initially got him stripped of the police portfolio, he said judges should front up about their decisions more. 

“Wouldn’t it be refreshing because what we hear is the facts of the case and we hear the sentence given and we hear nothing of the narrative.”   

“Just a little bit of transparency would be really, really helpful.” 

On the day of that interview, Nash said his new job was set to be revealed later that day. He wouldn’t disclose what the job was, instead saying it was a “very good company”. 

Nash said he and his wife, Sarah, sat down and listed companies they would want to work for “whose values aligned with mine and had an international flavour”. 

“It had to be something I could get passionate about and there were about five or six companies.” 

“I’m really looking forward to it. The CEO is a fantastic guy, the company promotes excellence . . . and allows me to leverage off my networks,” he told Mike Hosking in August.  

Nash had already been re-selected as Labour’s Napier candidate for the election when he announced his retirement. 

He was replaced by Mark Hutchinson and is going up against National’s Katie Nimon, who stood against Nash in the 2020 election and lost by 5,856 votes. 

A Taxpayers Union-Curia poll from August had Nimon out in front on 37% with Hutchinson on 28% with 18% undecided.