Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simeon Brown: Transport Minister on the planned meeting in the wake of the Onehunga bus stabbing

Transcript

Simeon Brown: Transport Minister on the planned meeting in the wake of the Onehunga bus stabbing · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Auckland is be vigilant in public. That is the message
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: from Police Safety on public transport in the spotlight following
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the death of a woman on an on the Hunger bus.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It was half mid afternoon. This happened. A thirty seven
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: year old man sought by a police handed himself in yesterday,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: but no charges have yet been laid. Simeon Brown is
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the Transport minister. Minister, good morning, thanks for being on
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the program.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Can you tell me anything about this is a tragedy
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: for the victim here in the victims family. Do you
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: know anything about her?
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: No? I don't at this stage. All I'd say is
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: this is an absolutely tragic situation for the family the victim,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and really I feel for them. But also it's really
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: important we now work across Auckland to make sure that
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: we are restoring confidence for Uklanders to use public transport.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Is it safe to go on a bus or a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: train in.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Auckland, Well it is. I think The issue here though,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: is there we have real challenges around law and order
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: across New Zealand and that's why we are really focusing
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: in our police back on the front line. I'm meeting
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: with Mark Mitchfield and with officials from police and Aukland
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Transport later today to talk about the situation and what
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: more can be done. The key issue here is to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: ensure that we are utilizing the resources that we have,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to give Aucklander's confidence around utilizing public transport, keeping public
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: transport workers safe, and looking at what more we can do.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: The heroes reported on previous and are threatening to kill
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: by stabbing. Sentenced in May. This is the guy who
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: has been arrested. Got a year and seven months. People
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: get automatically released after half of their sentence if it's
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: less than two years. You know, it was alleged to
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a breach bail. Should this guy have been on the streets.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Well, that's why we're changing things like the Sentencing Act.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: That's why we're removing, you know, making it harder to
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: get parole in some of these circumstances. That's why we're
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: reducing the work that Paul Goldsmith's doing around reducing some
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: of the discretions that judges have around discounting sentences. You know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that's what we were elected in order to deliver, and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: that's what we are. That's the legislation that's currently going
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: through parliament and.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Auto release after half your time served under two years.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Those seems a bit a bit loose, but you're not
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: changing that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Well, if there's a range of things, we are changing
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: because ultimately we need to make sure that you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: serious violent offenders our help account and we're a public
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: safety first in our criminal justice system. That's why God
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: of our legislation going through parliament.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Should he have been on the street.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Well if I don't know all the details in terms
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: of that, but all I say is does it make
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: we are changing?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Does it make it?
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely? I feel you know, I feel like most
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: AUK doers probably feel this morning, which is a sense
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: of anger, a sense of you know, concern, And I
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: think the key thing here is, you know, whether you're
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: walking down the street, going on a bus or a train,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you deserve to feel safe. And you know, we need
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: to make sure that the legislation prevents serious dangerous offenders
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: from being able to be you know what, then we
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: want to protect New Zealanders from them. We also need
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: to make sure that police resources focused on the rudio
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: that Mark Mitchell's doing, but making sure the police are
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: focused on frontline activities. And it's why We also meet
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: with Auckland Transport and police officials a bit later today
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: to talk about, you know, what what can we do
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: with the resource we've got. There's also some funding that's
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: available around putting more screens and for bus drivers and
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: getting that rolled out of it faster potentially. So there's
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: there's things that we can do and we're going to
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: be talking about how we can how we can continue
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to do that.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Well, let's hope something comes with that. Minister, Really appreciate
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thank you for being with me.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: That's Simeon Brown.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: to news Talks there'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio