Mark Mitchell: Police Minister explains why he denied Ginny Andersen's request to meet with a Police Inspector

The Police Minister has clarified why he declined the Opposition spokesperson's request to visit an Auckland police station to meet with an inspector.  

Ginny Andersen says she followed well established practice when asking to visit Albany station, but Mark Mitchell's office said no.  

Mitchell told Mike Hosking it's different to when he labelled then-Minister Poto Williams “petulant and vindictive” for refusing his request to meet with the police commissioner.  

He says if Andersen had requested to meet the Commissioner, it would have been approved within 30 seconds.  

Instead, he says she requested to attend an operational police station alongside another MP, without specifying who she was meeting with. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah, good old politics. Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Ah did make a comment in the House. My comment
was this, you had not across your brief. That was
my comment, and the House yesterday come so you you
could have a.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Little bit of back and forth. Then later on the afternoon,
Mark Mitchell was accused of barring Ginny Anderson from visiting
the Albany police station. Mitchell says he can't support a
generic request to visit a station with no context in
a week's notice. Anderson claims the Police Minister are scared
of what she might find out. The Police Minister Marke
Mitchell's with us very good morning. Are you are you
a monumental hypocrite?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, not at all, not at all. If it's nice
that the eight months in the opposition police spokesmen spokes
versus has shown interested visits and of course I'm going
to support and facilitate those where i can. There is
a reason why you have to request to be able
to visit the police station is because they are operational.
They've got workloads, they've got appointments, they've got offenders and

(01:00):
victims in police stations. It's not a library. And when
a request comes through, specify who you actually want fleet
with so that we can actually check and make sure
that that person is available and not tied up doing police.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
With Okay, so if she comes at what's the timeframe,
by the way, that's acceptable.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
If a week isn't, well, give us much notice as
you can. I mean, I'm the police Minister, and I
give as much notice as I can when I'm visiting
police stations. And by the way, I try to keep
them as lokey as possible because the last thing our
hard working frontline police officers need is politicians rolling in.
Now I'm saying that. Now, I'm saying that I encourage

(01:36):
local MP's to have very strong, trusted working relationships with
area and district commanders because our area and district commanders
are leaders in their communities, as are our electric MPs,
and that does happen. There is regular quarterly meetings that
happen and bringing peace together. Look, and the other thing
I want to say, Mike, is that I support all

(01:58):
of our opposition spokespeople. In my emergency management portfolio. I
make my officials available. I've provided briefings to labor and
green spokespeople as in WAIRA for the local state of emergency.
I bought the labor MP Kushler that throw raf at
the MP into my briefings and included her so that

(02:20):
she was across and knew what was happening. I've got
a public safety meeting in Auckland tomorrow morning, my second one.
I invite Chloe Swarbrick along to that as the local MP,
and she attends and comes. I was in Phil Twyford's
electorate office last week helping him with a constituent matter.
I work across party because at the end of the day, people,
when they're stressed and they need help, do not care

(02:40):
about politics. But if the opposition, if the opposition police
spokesperson wants access to police stations, please give us some notice,
Please give us some specicifty around who they want to
meet with. And by the way, the best person to
meet with and get information from is the police commissioner.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Okay, Having said all that, what's the time frame? Because
you didn't to that question. If a week isn't good enough,
what is good enough?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
No? I said, look as much notice as possible.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
What if she goes two weeks notice and you go,
that's not good enough. I don't want to keep getting
back on the program.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Here there's police better. I'll do two or three weeks
for a month out. But look, if she wants to
make an application for a week, it's fine. I'll support
her as much as I can with that. It is
important for our democracy. However, please specify who you want
to meet with. Just rocking up to a police station
with another MP and walking in and wandering around and
trying to find and talk to commissioned officers. That is

(03:32):
not a goer. It's not a library. It's an operation
in the police station.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
All the examples you gave and your offers gave me
the same examples. They're all under the auspices of your
emergency management portfolio. There doesn't seem to be anything cooperative
under your police portfolio. Are you but sensitive about that?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
No, Chloe Swarbrick, that's that is public safety. That's the
Auckland CBD. That's getting that, that's that's working on making
our CBD safer. And you've seen that there's been a
lot of resource put into that. And I can bring
Chloe into that because she's the locally.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Okay, so let me just play this and you will
clear this up once and for all. This is March
twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
This is you. I checked with two other police past
police listens. They said they never bought any requests from
the opposition spokesperson. You know, she's been petulant and vindictive
and making a personal that's third world stuff that she
might as well go and join the cabinet Somalia.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
So that's Poto Williams. Of course you're referring to. So
this you argue black and blue is different and you're
a good guy.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
And what I was talking about, that is where I
was talking about. That is a request to meet with
the police commissioner. I was blocked from meeting with the
police commissioner. If Ginny Anderson had sent for a request
yesterday to meet with the police commissioner, it would have
been approved and sent back within thirty seconds. She didn't
do that. She requests to get it on an operational
police station with another list MP and specify who she

(04:49):
was going to meet with. And if she keeps sending
requests like that, they're going to be declined. Please, she
is welcome to go to a police station. She is
welcome to go and speak to someone. Please idea who
she wants to speak to us. That the Crime Control manager,
is that, the area commander, is that, the district commander,
is that the inspector in charge for HR Exactly? Is it?
Because just rocking up to a police station and saying

(05:11):
I want to walk in there and just talk to
commissioned officers is probably going to continue to get the
same response if she comes back to when she says
I want it gives us as much notice as possible.
I'd like to visit this police station. This is who
I'd like to visit. And by the way, it should
be a commissioned police officer, because our front line police
officers don't want to get tied up in politics or
necessarily talking to politicians. Then I will approve that no

(05:34):
problem at all. But the example that you just gave
there was photo Williams blocking me. Is the police spokesperson
to speak to the commissioner. And by the way, I've
had several quests. I had timoth and Paul come up
to me the other day in Parliament say, Hey, is
there any chance i'd get access to questions and police?
I said, of course, I said, put a request to
let me know what you need and make it happen,
all right, and.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
See it We'll see you next Wednesday. I appreciate it
very much. Mike Mitchell, Policeman, is tay clear enough? I
think it does, doesn't to agree.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
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