Mark Mitchell: Police Minister unpacks the risks of police corruption

The Police Minister says we must always keep an eye on corruption.

An independent advisory panel has urged the Government to act against organised crime networks targeting Pacific borders.

The report highlights the risk people working in customs and immigration will be targeted by bribery and corruption, to let groups smuggle in goods.

Mark Mitchell says New Zealand's not immune to bad behaviour.

"The key to it is acting on it quickly and making sure that it's purged out of our police."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New Zealand is becoming more corrupt. That's the warning to
the government from the Ministerial Advisory Group into transnational gangs.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
We talked to are most senior officials and the police
and customs and we ask them of the large scale
drug importations, of the large scale llegal tobacco importations, how
many of them involve a corrupt official? That is both
far and the vast majority of those cases.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Mark Mitchell is the police minister.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
How much?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Hey here they look very First firstly, I just want
to really quickly say congratulations. Broadcasts of the year, well done.
You know, I'm quite lord to Hoscar on his show,
but hey, it was fantastic.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Then you picked that.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Up as always you are so charming. Thank you for that.
You worried about cops being corrupted.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
I mean, you know, of course, you know something that
we always have to be focused on. We're not immune
to corruption and bad habits or bad behavior in New Zealand.
So that's why there's a very thorough vetting process that
goes on. The important thing is when there is bad
behavior corruption that's identified in the police. And by the way,
there's been one example of that in the last few years,

(01:04):
and the police were very quick to act on it.
The key to it is acting on it quickly and
making sure that it's purged out of our police. We
have got a world class police force. We can all
be proud of them, we can all have full confidence
in them. But it's like any big organization. Occasionally you
get a bad apple that comes forward, but you got
to deal with them quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I mean, it's not just the police obviously, as the
customs guys and the immigration guys and the border officials
and stuff. How do we actually deal with it? How
do we stop this happening?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, I mean, first of all, we do. I know
I keep saying it, but I spent a lot of
time overseas and in the logistics and a big part
of my job with a global logistics company was dealing
with corrupt officials and corruption right throughout the whole system.
We're very lucky back here in New Zealand that, although
we have to be vigilant and we have to be
aware of that behavior and we're not immune to it,
we've actually got world class custom services, police service. You

(01:58):
know that the agencies that deal with this are quite
simply outstanding. But we have to make sure that we
continue to vet. We have to make sure that we're vigilant,
and we have to make sure that when we do
see evidence of corrupt behavior or poor behavior, that we
act on it quickly.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Do we need to accept that we also have to
pay our people more so that they don't need to
top up their incomes.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, that's you know. We always want to pay them more.
We want to pay our first responders more. It's just
natural as a country. And I think that as we
start to recover fiscally and as we start to see
some growth, those are the sort of options that become
open to a government. But we came in in the
complete opposite situation where we're having to be very fiscally
disciplined and restrained to get us back on the right
track again.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Listen, have you asked the police commissioner to explain why
no one in the cops told you that they'd seize
Michael Forbes's work phone.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
No, he did inform me when it's when he became
aware of the situation that under no surprises. Look at
the time, I don't know. The Prime Minister has obviously
asked for Dia to have a look at this and
go back so that we can work out and see
what the answers are around that. But again, like I said,
the important thing is when you do become aware of

(03:07):
these things, you've got to act quickly, and that's exactly
what happened in this case.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
All Right, Mitch, thank you, as always appreciated, Mark Mitchell,
Police Minister.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
For more from Hither Duplessy, Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio