Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mark Mitchell: Corrections Minister on the number of people breaching electronically monitored bail

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Mark Mitchell: Corrections Minister on the number of people breaching electronically monitored bail · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you've seen more people out with the corrections ankle
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: bracelets on lately, we know why. Ankle monitor escapes have
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: increased from sixty four in twenty fifteen to more than
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  Speaker 1: eight hundred in the last year. The number of electronic
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: monitoring is also up through the roof though, from twelve
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  Speaker 1: hundred to six thousand, so there's some context. Mark Mitchell
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  Speaker 1: was the Corrections Minister with us this morning. Minister, good morning, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, Ryan, you're still back in your Finance minister.
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  Speaker 1: You know your Prime minister. What do you think of
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  Speaker 1: these calls for them to resign?
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  Speaker 2: No, one hundred percent, i'd bet that. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: this is my second round in government. Is an actual
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  Speaker 2: government and like the first time around we had, we
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  Speaker 2: inherited a group port economy and some real issues in
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  Speaker 2: the economy and it took us a while. We turned
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  Speaker 2: it around and I don't know if you've meant it,
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  Speaker 2: but it used to be called the rock star economy.
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  Speaker 2: This time around we inherited a much bigger problem and
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  Speaker 2: it's going to take a bit of time to turn around.
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  Speaker 2: The Finance Minister is doing the outstanding job and size
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  Speaker 2: the promise.
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  Speaker 1: Would you call negative point nine outstanding.
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  Speaker 2: Well, like I said to you, there's some there's definitely
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  Speaker 2: a few head winds there. There's no doubt about that.
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  Speaker 2: There was some good growth before the negative point nine.
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  Speaker 2: And like I just said to you, we last time
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  Speaker 2: I was in government and it was national we had
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  Speaker 2: John t in Bill English, we inherited really big problems
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  Speaker 2: from the labor government. This is this political cycle we
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  Speaker 2: seem to happen. That seems to happen as that labor
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  Speaker 2: comes in, they throw money where nothing gets delivered. They
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  Speaker 2: reach up huge debt for us. I mean we're paying
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  Speaker 2: annually about eight nine billion dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Ten are right, So just stick to the plan.
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  Speaker 2: I stick run the police force four times over on the.
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  Speaker 1: Stick to the plan, stick to the script. All right, minister,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about this electronic monitoring. So in twenty fifteen
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  Speaker 1: in percentage increase becomes important because there's been an increase
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  Speaker 1: in those who were getting electronic monitoring. Right, So twenty
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  Speaker 1: fifteen it was five percent, twenty twenty five is absconding
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  Speaker 1: is now fourteen percent. So what how did that happen?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, you've got different numbers to me. I've got
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  Speaker 2: eleven percent. But it's actually dropped significantly. They're doing our
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  Speaker 2: creations are quite quite simp we're doing an outstanding job. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: to number of people on electronic bail has increased, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's getting that towards thirty zerousand. The reason for that
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  Speaker 2: is because we're now wrapping consequences, well we want consequences
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  Speaker 2: to actually that's the serious of the offend. And I've
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  Speaker 2: also we've also had to deal with a massive increase
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  Speaker 2: of people coming into the correction system that's so prioritizing
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  Speaker 2: public safety.
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  Speaker 1: So I've got here from news talks there be as
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  Speaker 1: a proportion of individuals on electronically monitored bail, the absconding
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  Speaker 1: rate increased from five percent to fourteen percent. Is that wrong?
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  Speaker 2: It's gone from what five twenty fifteen to eleven percent?
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  Speaker 2: Is at thirty one July twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so eleven percent or fourteen percent, that's gone up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, so when it's actually coming down, So
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  Speaker 2: if you look at what they're doing, it's actually starting
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  Speaker 2: to come down. But then it's quite that basically, Ryan,
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  Speaker 2: there has been a big increase in people on electronic bail,
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  Speaker 2: more than we would have liked because what was happening.
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  Speaker 2: Is we more there's people getting electroc bail that we
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  Speaker 2: thought should literally be in prison. So that's why we've
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  Speaker 2: made changes changed to the What.
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  Speaker 1: Does absconding mean like is that cutting off?
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  Speaker 2: Basically, what it means is just not complying with the
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  Speaker 2: orders that are in place. So Corrections have got teams
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  Speaker 2: are working twenty four seven that are moorishing that they
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  Speaker 2: were very closely with the police. They informed the police
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  Speaker 2: when someone breaches there electronic bail and the police take
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  Speaker 2: exture on that. And that's why you start to see
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  Speaker 2: our reduction as well as because you know, we are
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  Speaker 2: as the incoming government, We've been very clear that there's
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  Speaker 2: going to be consequences that match, you know, the serious.
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  Speaker 1: Just how can you say it's coming down when the
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  Speaker 1: rate's gone from five percent to that's eleven or fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: It's going up, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I know because if you look at but if
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  Speaker 2: you look at twenty nineteen, it was a nineteen percent,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty seventeen percent, twenty twenty one to sixteen percent,
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, fifteen percent, twenty twenty three, sixteen, twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty four, fourteen to July twenty five eleven. Gotcha, So
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  Speaker 2: in the last two years it's coming down.
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  Speaker 1: All right, minister, appreciate your time. Mat Mitchell is the
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  Speaker 1: corrections Minister.
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  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 4:28
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