Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ginny Andersen: Labour's Police Spokesperson calls out Mark Mitchell for denying her request to meet with an Auckland police inspector

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Ginny Andersen: Labour's Police Spokesperson calls out Mark Mitchell for denying her request to meet with an Auckland police inspector · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Going to Ginny Anderson, who's the Labor police spokesperson, because
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the Police Minister Mark Mitchell is refusing to allow Labor
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: a Labour's Genny Anderson to meet an Auckland police inspector.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Sounds pretty petty to me. It comes two years after
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Mitchell himself, who was then National's police spokesperson in opposition,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you'll remember, was blocked from meeting with police leaders by
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the then Police Minister Portor Williams, a decision he said
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: was petulant and vindictive. Ginny Anderson's with us, good morning.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Good morning Ryan. How are you.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm good, thank you. Now I just want to read
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: you what he has said his office has told us.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: He says, basically, I would support such a request if
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you were going to meet with the commissioner. I cannot
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: support a generic request to visit a police station with
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: no context, with a week's notice.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Well, I think he's walking that back quite quickly because
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: he's realized that he has made a mistake. It's a
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: well established practice that you go to the minister's office. Borrows.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Myself and Chris Hopkins never made any attempts to stop
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: him from making visits when he was the opposition spokesperson
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: and all the information that's required as the date and
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the place and who you intend to meet with. So
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I think he's realized that he's reacted in the wrong way.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So were you just going to bowl up or had
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you been contact with someone there to meet with them?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: No, we'd sort of to the MP on the ground
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: often makes inquiries, but we wouldn't attend unless the minister
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: had approved.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: But was the meeting did you speak to did you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: arrange a meeting with an inspector there and then go
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: get permission from the minister or did you do the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: minister first? And actually you haven't got a specific meeting
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in mind.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I think Shannon Helbert had done some preliminary work, but
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't do that until the minister had approved the meeting.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Right, Because it sounds like he says, I cannot support
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a generic request to visit a police station with no
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: con for the week to notice. It sounds like he
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: was worried that if he gave you permission, you were
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: just going to bowl up there and just sort of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: harass people.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: No, No, that's not the practice. It's quite an established
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: practice that you only speak with someone who's inspector level
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: or higher, and it's a meeting usually in the station,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and it would be half an hour for an hour.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: He'd done it many many times himself. He should know
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: that it's a pretty standard practice. And the overall concern
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: is we would not want to politicize the police. So
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it's fighting by general rules to make sure the police
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: are protected from visits and they're not dragged into any
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: sort of political you.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Know, yeah, fair enough. Who was the inspector, Janine, What
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: did you want to talk to them about?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, well, we were quite interested in an Auckland retail
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: crime that has been an ongoing issue for both governments.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So it's important we understand the recent events that have
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: been acting, how they're impacting upon the community, and also
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: what measures police are putting into place to reassure the
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: community that things are being responded to quickly.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Jenny, thank you very much for coming on the show.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Ginny Anderson, Labour's police spokesperson, responding there to Mark Mitchell's
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: refusal to allow her into the police station in Albany.
• 3:08
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• 3:11
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• 3:14
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