Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
From the Labor Party, Ginny Anderson, good morning, good morning,
and from the National Party, Mark Mitchell, good morning to you.
Good morning, Mike, Ginny. Did I make a mistake before
the news? Where did I get the idea that Andrew
Little was from New Plymouth?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He stood in New Plymouth and he has lived there
for some time, so he was Yeah, he stood there,
but he now lives in an Island Bay.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Right, so so has he lived as my texts has
he said? My text here says he's lived in Ireland
Bay for fifteen years, which I don't think is true
because he's stood for New Plymouth.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
His family, I can know his mum lived there for
a while. I'd have to go double check, but he's
got family connections there and he has lived there in
his life and spent time growing up there.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Would he be better than Tory? Would any I mean,
let's be honest, would anyone better than Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I think he'd be pretty good, to be honest, I
think he'd cut through a lot of the mucking around.
I mean, you know, they've kind of debated whether to
bulldoze the Bagonia House for about you know, five months
or six months.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It's a crying that's beautiful there.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
But he's someone who would kind of not just announce
things and then do a you turn and muck around.
That he would get on with the job and I
think he'd realized the importance of creating consensus and a
council and if once you've got your majority, having agreement
in just getting work done, I think he'd be good
at that.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Can I ask the question that I'm assuming a lot
of people would ask if he ran. If you can't
run the country and you can't run the Labor Party,
what makes you think you can run.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Wellington well I think he's the kind of person that
doesn't divide people, and I think that's problematic at local
government level that some people don't quite realize that you've
got a range of different views and you need to
bring them together to get progress happening. I think he's
quite level headed and you would be trusted as a
(01:44):
good safe pair of henes just to get progress and
Wellington desperately needs it. We just need some progress to
start happening and to help with life and economic vitality
back into our city mark.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Have you met the Napui people up north on the
meth and fhetamine.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
No, we meet today. We've got a meeting today with them,
so they're in Wellington, so we'll all be coming together
for a meeting later on it this afternoon.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Because that report that went to this is separate he
wrote to you. But the report that went to cases Castello,
I mean, what are shambles with organized crime and the
myth and the I mean, jeez, well.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
We know that we've got a big problem as a country.
We know that this has taken decades to sort of
grow and manifest itself. But I can tell you this
that in the last eighty months we've already taken really
firm steps in terms of dealing with that. We committed
to make sure that we get on top of it.
It is going to take a whole of system approaching.
When I say that, I mean like central government, local government,
community groups, a private sector. But look, we can get
(02:39):
on top of it. When it was certainly not that
we haven't waived the white flag on the amount of
crime that we still grow over the last six years,
we're slowly getting on top of that.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We're going to get on.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Top of this.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You need to both of you, though, do something about
this business. How many reports have I read in my
forty four years in this industry that say there's not
enough sharing of information between government departments and there are
rules of regulations and attitudes around that and none of that,
and this report says the same thing. None of that
seems to have changed. Why not?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
So we are breaking those walls down. And of course
you know that the whole idea of a social Investment
agency is to make sure that we get all the
government agencies that historically operate in silos working together and
focused on we're the best use of tax bars, money
lies and what will deliver the best results. And that
comes to fighting crime as well. And look, the classic
example is myself and Simon Wattson and Casey Costello, who
(03:27):
of course is my associate and has got the delegation
for this. And the reason why she has that is
because she's also got Customs and they've got an important
role to play around law enforcement. And she was a
qualified detective, she was a vice president with the Police Association.
She's outstanding, very experienced in her and I work very
closely together in terms of dealing with this. But I
(03:48):
had a meeting with Simon watts who as the Minister
for Ird just before Christmas and said we've got to
get information, share and support happening across the agency is
much better. And that's happening.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Are they running If I'm running pe AM, I running
that through the IRD, I'm more cash operation.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
No, I'd like to can I say that would be nice?
I think that well to note actually she slightly loosened
up anti money laundering laws. Here's a billet selectimitting now
which we're taking a look at. So it is it
is a concern about how much money laundering. John Ke
was pretty good at cracking down on that, and I
think we actually need to take a closer look at it.
But these two key issues that we need an answer to.
(04:26):
First of all, we need to know how much it's
the Mexican cartails coming and selling meath much cheaper. It's
dropped in about thirty eight percent in price. It's the
biggest price drop in New Zealand's history, and that means
the market is flooded with cheap methamphetamine. And the second
point we need to really find out is is it
the same user group using more using is that the
ninety six percent increase or is it a widened group.
(04:49):
Are the younger people using and that's the big worry
because that stills over into retail crime.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
So at the moment, the evidence on the second point
is the fact that we're not seeing although that obviously
in the latest wastewater testing there's been a massive increase,
we're not seeing that manifest itself in the health system
or so we don't know the people more.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, exactly, and the excerpts have said so. Chris Wilkins,
I'm sure, who's been in the space for twenty years,
says that it takes about three to four months maybe
more for it to kind of for one a bit
of a word, to actually start showing in social disintegration
as family units start to break down and people commit
crime against the people they love. That's what it does
to communities, and so it'll take four or five months
(05:32):
for those kinds of times to start presenting in there.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
A couple of quickies Ginny Mark with us Jinny David
Parker thoughts out of ten.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
He's a great guy. He's a huge contribution and to
be honest, he's a personal friend. I've known him pretty
much straight away since he came into Parliament and he's
one of those people that if you've got a problem
or you're dealing with an issue, you can go into
his office and talk to him and he will just
give you an hour. He's really generous and incredibly clever.
Real smart guy.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yes, he is a thought smart. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I really liked David. I mean, I remember when I
was Defense Minister. I took him up to Bagdad to
see our troops up there, and he came back and
he was very supportive of them, and I got to
know him on that trip, and so yeah, just huge
acknowledgment and respect for his service and what he's done.
He's obviously moving on to greenw Field, so they say
that when you leave Parliament you're immediately ten years younger,
(06:26):
so I'm sure he's hoping that happens as well.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Protection for MP's Ginny. They're looking at this at the moment.
Shane Jones obviously is in the news. Brownly apparently is
looking to say do you feel you need something more
than what you have, which, as far as I can
work out as an alarm and nothing else.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I would say that I think post COVID things shifted.
You did get more kind of weird stuff happening in
set of threats not just on social media but in
other areas as well. So yeah, I think the threat
risk has probably increased. To be honest, it's for for
not like not park Our women get it far more,
(07:02):
far greater in terms of online abuse. And that's just
the honest truth. But the kinds of things people are
saying to you are kind of weird, and yeah, so
I always watch it myself to see what they're actually saying.
And sometimes, to be honest, maybe I shouldn't, but I
do respond to emails I get that that are religion
weird stuff, do you, because I feel they deserve a
response a lot from your show actually, not to be
(07:24):
forget about four or five emails from different individuals around
the company country with some pretty interesting views, and I
often I usually respond. So maybe that's maybe I should
stop doing that.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
But official, and I guess you're sort of open to
that sort of thing, Mark, do you, I mean in
a high but really like when you're Minister of the Crown, Mark,
so police police, but I think most people will be
on your side ish now, apart from maybe the gangs,
but in those contentious areas. I mean, Shane Jones's wife
doesn't deserve what happened at all the deport does she know.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
What the completely totally you know, condemn that behavior and
without a doubt. I think since past COVID, for some reason,
boundaries have changed. People are more aggressive and which is
bad as a country. We have to start to move
ourselves back in the other direction. Look to be honest
with you, I've been lucky. Yes, I can't talk publicly
(08:18):
about some of the threats that I've had. They do come.
They've been mostly because of the work they've done around gangs.
That's not going to stop. But I worry about my staff.
We had someone in my office last week that required
a police response, and you know that that's the world
that we live in. For me, I just I'm not alarmist.
(08:39):
I'm just situation where and make sure that my staff
and every want is safe from around me.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
A couple of mark Do you know anything about Hamish
Campbell of Ireland and two by twos and what the
hell's going on here and whether this is a thing
or not?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
To me, it just looks like a huge nothing beat up.
You know, I know Hamous very well. He's a good guy.
He's a very good local MP, really diligent, hard working,
hard working in our caucus. So I don't I've only
seen what I've read in the media, and to me,
it's like, I don't really know what they're going on
with it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
What do you do? Do you have a view, Ginny? Do
you know what the two are?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Not? In perhaps I and I've ever been advised into one. No,
I have read about them. I'm always a bit interested
in cults and you know, like sort of small groups.
I've read about them, and I think the fearpoint would
be if there is a police investigation relating to child
abuse and that needs to play out, then you need
to of.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Course, I don't think anyone's arguing that what I couldn't
work out is the repolice investigation in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I think that I FBI have contacted New Zealand. There
seems to be like there's a bit obscure, but there
seems to be some contact. Mike will probably know more,
but it seems like I fb I have contacted New
Zealand police for information and there's some sort.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Of well that's that's that would be an operational meta.
So no, I don't know anything about that. And if
there's a FBI joint police investigation. Then let that happen
and let them control that in reporting.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It just couldn't work out whether he's been ping, because
I mean it's I don't know what the two X
twos do or don't do. But at the end of
the day, unless he's directly accused in some way, shape
or form of doing something illegal, being part of something
isn't a thing is And it's like saying, look, there's
a lot of dodgy people in the Roman Catholic Church
and what do you know about that?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I agree with you completely. That's the whole point is
why are they reporting on something that unless you know,
unless there is involvement or something like that, And to me,
it just looks like a beat up.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Just quickly, Ginny, I'm up against it now, Benjamin Doyle.
Do we need to have something more than what we
have currently by way of information detail anything?
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, I mean, again, it's a similar situation to the
one you've just discussed. If there are a grounds for
a further investigation, that's that there are people to do that,
But I don't think so. I think more in terms
of a safety it seems like there's been some pretty
significant de threats to him, So I think there needs
to be some serious considerations around whether he can continue
(11:04):
to feel safe in the parliamentary environment and even in
the public as well.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, anything make no.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I just think in terms of the safety thing, Look,
I totally agree that, you know, people should be able
to feel safe whether they're at home, whether the out
in public, or they're in their workplace. So that's the
number one thing that needs to be adressed. But at
the end of the day, he's paid by the tech.
We're all paid by the text pars. We're in service
of the text pars and donations which we find up
to work here.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Good stuf. Nice talk to you, Mark Mitchell, Ginny Anderson.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
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