Jason Walls: Political editor says Labour MP's domestic violence claim is 'complete nonsense'

The Police Minister says a Labour MP's claim is a deliberate attempt to undermine hard-working officers. 

Labour's Deborah Russell told Newstalk ZB Police were being told not to attend domestic violence crimes. 

Political Editor Jason Walls told Heather du Plessis-Allan that data shows police are attending 7.7 percent more family violence callouts, since changing the triage system. 

He says Mitchell called Russell's claim complete nonsense. 

She clarified she meant to say family violence is one of the most common forms of violent crime - but often underreported. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jason Wall's news Talks be Political Leaders is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello Jason, Good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 3 (00:04):
So what's raw? What you been up to?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well? I mean it comes from a social media post
that he made a couple of weeks ago, and he
basically he was praising Bikino Faso's president Ibrahim Traore in
a social media post, calling him a modern day hero.
He said there was a video of him making a
speech and in the comment attaching it said, Tino Ranga
tiretanga is not only a domestic commitment, it's an international

(00:29):
determination or fight for political economics, social and cultural independence
and liberation is not a dream, It's a decision now.
David Seymour isn't.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Pleased that this, given trio's track record is a little
bit patchy. He says, his hero speaking about Rai here
is a Marxist dictator who has delayed elections and banned homosexuality.
Tipati Marii is not in parliament to uphold democracy but
wreck it now. The Human Rights Watch has accused Bikino
Faso's government forces and allied media of massacring up to

(01:02):
one hundred and thirty civilians in March so obviously this
is not the sort of usual role model people would have.
Now Chris Luxen was asked about this today.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Here's what he said. Well, it's pretty wacky remarks from Rawori,
to be honest, and ultimately that's a problem for the
Labor Party because he's going to be one.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Of their four potential deputy promisters if that's the case.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
So I'd go ask Chris Hopkins about that. Now, there
might be people listening to this being like, why are
you talking about this nonsense? It's not politics, And to
that I would say that we do have a tendency.
I mean, imagine if the shoe was on the other foot,
and it wouldn't even have to be a sitting act
Party member, even if it was like some scure candidate
from some part of the country that said that some
fascists somewhere was his hero, it would be coverage wall

(01:42):
to wall everywhere. So it's just fair to provide a
little bit of balance when the shoe is on the
other foot.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Who said, why are we talking about this?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I know, I'm just saying that there would be people
out there that listen to these sort of these beltway
arguments that we have about what social media, what politicians
say on social media, and I can understand there would
be people out there saying actually talk about the real
issues as opposed to just a couple of politicians squabbling
on social media.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So what's Deborah been up to then.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Deborah Russell, She went on Nick Mills's Wellington Morning show
to say the following thing.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
But the biggest set of crime in this country is
actually domestic violence and we haven't seen the national government
responding to that meaningfully. And in fact police have been
told not to attend domestic violence crimes because they're not
as important as some other crimes.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
So police being told not to attend domestic violence crime.
As soon as I heard it, alarm bell started ringing
in my head, thinking that's probably not true. So I
followed up with the Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and he
said the claim that police have been told not to
attend domestic of violence incidents is complete nonsense. It is
another deliberate attempt from the opposition to undermine our hard

(02:48):
working police officers and mislead the public. He goes on
to say that police are triaging differently in relation to
social issues that are more appropriate for a non police response. However,
there have been very clear that they are not transitioning
away from attending family violence events that require police response.
In fact, according to Mark Mitchell, police are attending seven

(03:09):
point seven percent more family violence events as a Priority
one emergency event than had they they had previously been
doing so. In response to this, we did get in
contact with Deborah Russell, who is that she's a former
minister for the Labor Party. For those that don't know,
she said family violence is one of the most common
forms of violent crime and often unreported, which is what

(03:30):
I meant to say, which is not exactly what she
said on the problem.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
She did so, she didn't mean to say that police
had been told not to attend DV anymore.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
No, she meant to say that family violence was one
of the most common forms of violent crime and is
often unreported, which you know, listen back to actually what
she said, So what she said she said. She was
meant to say family violence is one of the most
common forms of violent crime and is often unreported. Here's
what she said.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
But the biggest set of crime in this country is
actually the miss violence and we haven't seen the national
government responding to that meaningfully and In fact, police have
been told not to achieved domestic violence crimes because they're
not as important as some other crimes.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I don't know how she thought she meant to say
the other thing, but anyway, so.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
The other thing.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Yet, Hey, Jason, what do you think of the policy
costing Unit's idea good or bad? Ah?

Speaker 2 (04:19):
To be honest, it would have been gamed politically and
it would have been I mean, it sounds good in theory,
but it just sounds like at the end of the day,
it would have just been a whole other level of
attacks that political parties would have had on this independent union,
despite the fact that it would have been independent. So
I think good. It was good in theory. I've always
thought that we need something like this like Australia has,

(04:40):
like other countries have, But I think it probably would
have become another political football. If I'm honest, I actually
agree with you on that. Jason, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
We'll reap the political week that was with you later
on the show. That's Jason Wall's News Talks Politically. For
more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to News Talks.
It'd be from four pm weekdays or follow the podcast
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