Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ginny Andersen: Labour's Police spokesperson on NZ Police leaving for Australia

Transcript

Ginny Andersen: Labour's Police spokesperson on NZ Police leaving for Australia · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Police admitting that they just basically and it's not a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: surprising admission given the numbers that are the eye watering
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: numbers that are on offer, but they just can't compete
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: with the money on offer across the ditch.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: It's frustrating, frankly, and I've told my police commissioner colleagues
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: across Australia that I would rather they didn't come to
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: New Zealand and poach my people.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: One hundred and forty four cops left for Australia in
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the past year, and now one in three resignations is
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: linked to the move. Jennie Anderson, as Labour's police spokesperson,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: joined US Live this morning and.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: A good morning, Good morning mane. How are you.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm very well, thank you. So what are we going
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to pay them more? And how much does that cost?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Well, it looks like cost of living is really pushing
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: not just can you we've the police way and it's
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: said for us who want to have people staying here
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: because they're a family and we love them. So it's
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: a real loss in New Zealand to have so many
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: one hundred and forty four I think you said, wasn't
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: it in the past.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Year is a lot totally and how do you get
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: them back?
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Well, I think these push and pull factors, the several
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: push facts. I mean, one of the factors is the
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: fact that the government has failed to deliver on the
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: five hundred that they promised, and it just puts more
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: pressure on the front line. So I think we've seen
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: more pressure on police on the front line, less support,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: whether that support staff or it support in pull factors,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: which is great pay, so pay is definitely right.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Part of the factor is labor promising to pay them more.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Well, one thing that I think needs looking at, and
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: I'm prepared to take a look at that if we
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: to form the government, is that police currently have twenty
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: one steps in your pay, so wages are not only
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: not keeping up with inflation, but it means it takes
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: police much longer than any other profession to reach the
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: top of their payscale. And so while police might start
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: earning more a bit more than say nurses or teachers,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: it doesn't take very long three or four years, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: then those professions are any more than police. So I
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: think the fact that there are twenty one steps in
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: that payscale, that's a factor that needs to be looked at.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, and so you'll look at that, but it doesn't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: necessarily mean you're going to pay them more, just maybe
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: more sooner.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Well, what sounds like the Commission has sort of given
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: up on that sense. They've paid what thirty five thousand
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: dollars and got advertising campaign got two people back. But
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: we think that it's the campaign that the Police Association
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: currently have in place, which is repay the risk and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: acknowledging the risk that police take every day needs to
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: be rememorated. The part of that is that there's too
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: many steps in your pay scale that police take too
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: long to earn as much as similar professions in New Zealand,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: and so we think that that's a good thing that
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: we need to take a look at to say that
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: you should be earning more earlier on in your career.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: How interesting what's happening overseas, isn't it over in the UK?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: With performing over in Australia with one nation?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, very interesting times and again that just puts more
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: pressure on frontline police. Off situations are becoming difficult in
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: public So that's another factor as well that you need
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: to be considering if you're going.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Over okay, all right now, Jenny, Thank you Jenny Anderson
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: from Labor. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio