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Mark Mitchell: Police Minister on the arrest of corrections staff for corruption, accepting bribes · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A dozen Corrections staff arrested yesterday at least it does,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and including a senior officer. They were accused of taking
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: bribes to smuggle items into prison, including meth. Mark Minshall,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Minister for Corrections with me this morning, minister, good morning,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: good morning. Right is this gang you know, gangs inside prison?
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  Speaker 1: Who are controlling this stuff or what?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I can't speak to the detail obviously now the
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: rest have been made and now it's a legal process,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: so I can't interfere or discuss the details on it.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: But the one thing I would say when you mentioned
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  Speaker 2: gangs is that when I became minister, I had both
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Corrections and Police. I was very clear about them looking
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: closer together. They had been in terms of making using
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: a difficult place to be a game member, and also
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: focused on the harm that gang members are responsible for
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  Speaker 2: and organized crimes. So they Corrections and police have been
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: very effective at doing that and this has obviously been
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  Speaker 2: a very good operation of.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean all very well to put people
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in prison, but if they're going to prison and able
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to keep doing meth, it's hardly ideal, is it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and that's exactly why we're doing what we're doing.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: That's exactly why corrections and police are working together. This
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: is what gangs do. And like I said to you,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I can't talk to details about this case, so I'm
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: not inferring anything other than the fact that your original
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: comic was around gangs and we've been very proactive in
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  Speaker 2: dealing with them.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think correction staff get paid enough?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Look, I was saying yesterday that you know, in a
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  Speaker 2: perfect world, if we're a high wage economy like Australia,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: they are prepared to sort of tap into their natural resources.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Then you know, I'd love to be able to pay
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: all of our officials Saunders more. That's not the reality
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that we live in. But you know, at the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, we have got a world class corrections service.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: This is a very small group. Most of our corrections
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  Speaker 2: officers are professional, they're pack full of integrity. They do
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: an outstanding job in a very difficult environment. And I
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  Speaker 2: don't think that is an issue because you can't buy integrity.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: You either have it or you don't.
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  Speaker 1: Well, fourteen is quite I mean you're saying it's a
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  Speaker 1: small number, but still a lot of people. I mean
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  Speaker 1: I was quite shocked when I read that to be
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  Speaker 1: honest with you.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've got we've got eleven thousand. We've got eleven
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  Speaker 2: thousand people in directions, whether it be our frontline corrections
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: offices and our facilities, or whether it be community based,
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  Speaker 2: and every day they turn up, there's thousands of positive
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  Speaker 2: actions that take part.
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  Speaker 1: In it every daily. Is there anything like are you
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: going to do some sort of review or are you
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: going to be looking further into other staff members after
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  Speaker 1: what's happened here?
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  Speaker 2: Initially, I just wanted to reassure myself We've did our
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: recruiting process and our in our recruiting program is upstanded,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and I'm absolutely satisfied that it is. They do an
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  Speaker 2: outstanding job directions. But unfortunately the world that we live in,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: this is a global phenomenon. It's not just New Zealand.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Is that you get as our corrections officers are in
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  Speaker 2: a position where sometimes they are they do have pressure
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: put on them. It's important that they have the training
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and they do. And it's also important that enforcement agencies
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  Speaker 2: in this case police are being proactive running operations and
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: making sure that we get on top of this sort
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  Speaker 2: of these issues.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: All right, good stuff, minister, Thank you Mark Mitchell finished
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: for corrections.
• 3:17
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• 3:20
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• 3:23
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