I reckon Stuart Nash would benefit from having a bit more time to spend in the gym.

I don’t know how many times this week I’ve seen stories about him being known around Parliament as the “Minister of Muscles”.

But it’s the way he muscles in where he shouldn’t be that’s got him in hot water.

It all started on Wednesday morning when he was on Newstalk ZB bragging about cracking down on gangs.

And it was all going brilliantly for him. Talk about puff out the chest and bang the drum. In fact, at one point there, I thought he must have been having a few sleepovers at Mark Mitchell’s place - National’s police spokesperson.

Because you know how when kids start hanging out with their besties and doing the sleepover thing and everything, they start talking and sounding like their best mate.

And that I thought that when I heard Nash on Wednesday morning. Was it Nash or was it Mitchell?

But he got a bit carried away, didn’t he? He was so excited about proving he wasn’t one of those soft-on-crime wowsers who’d had the Police portfolio before Chippy gave it back to him earlier this year.

He was so excited and thought it was going so well, that he started banging on about a particular case where a guy down south who had lost his Class A firearms licence in 2017, was found in 2021 to have thousands of rounds of ammunition and a banned weapon.

And for that he got four months home detention. Which, at the time, outraged Stuart Nash. Which is fair enough.

But this is where things went pear-shaped. Because it was at this point in the conversation with Mike, where he mentioned that he'd called up the Police Commissioner and said 'surely you're going to appeal this'.

And then, while he was at it, he had a go at the judges handing out the sentences saying they had to read the room better.

While all that was happening, ACT’s David Seymour was taking notes, kicked up a stink and, by early afternoon on Wednesday, Nash was no longer Police Minister. With the Prime Minister saying that if he hadn't resigned he would have been pushed.

But he wasn’t completely out in the cold and he was allowed to hold on to his Forestry, Economic Development, and Fisheries portfolios.

Now, though, it’s been revealed that Stuart Nash not only phoned the Police Commissioner to ask if he was going to appeal a court sentence, but he also nearly faced a contempt charge after saying on radio that he hoped a man charged with killing a police officer would get a long prison sentence.

That was just after Eli Epiha had been arrested. He was accused but hadn’t yet been found guilty and that, as anyone knows, is an absolute no-no. The reason being that, if you say stuff like that, the accused can claim that they have been denied their right to a fair trial.

Which is why the Solicitor-General considered prosecuting him for contempt. He got off, though, with a warning about breaching the Cabinet manual.

So I think, on the evidence presented, we can safely say the Minister of Muscles is a loose cannon. Yes, he might say the sort of stuff that you and I think - and I actually like politicians who say it how they see it.

But I think Nash has well-and-truly cooked his goose. And I don’t think there is any good reason for the Prime Minister to let him continue to be a Minister in Cabinet.

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