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

Labour's police spokesperson is calling out the Police Minister for refusing her request to meet with an Auckland police inspector.  

Ginny Andersen asked to visit the Albany police station, but Mark Mitchell's office said no.  

In a statement, Mitchell says he cannot support a generic request to visit a station, with no context, with a week’s notice.  

Andersen told Ryan Bridge she followed what she considers a well-established practice, which Mitchell himself has followed before.  

She says she and Chris Hipkins never made any attempt to block Mitchell's visits when he was in opposition. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Going to Ginny Anderson, who's the Labor police spokesperson, because

(00:03):
the Police Minister Mark Mitchell is refusing to allow Labor
a Labour's Genny Anderson to meet an Auckland police inspector.
Sounds pretty petty to me. It comes two years after
Mitchell himself, who was then National's police spokesperson in opposition,
you'll remember, was blocked from meeting with police leaders by
the then Police Minister Portor Williams, a decision he said

(00:24):
was petulant and vindictive. Ginny Anderson's with us, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning Ryan. How are you.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm good, thank you. Now I just want to read
you what he has said his office has told us.
He says, basically, I would support such a request if
you were going to meet with the commissioner. I cannot
support a generic request to visit a police station with
no context, with a week's notice.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, I think he's walking that back quite quickly because
he's realized that he has made a mistake. It's a
well established practice that you go to the minister's office. Borrows.
Myself and Chris Hopkins never made any attempts to stop
him from making visits when he was the opposition spokesperson
and all the information that's required as the date and

(01:14):
the place and who you intend to meet with. So
I think he's realized that he's reacted in the wrong way.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So were you just going to bowl up or had
you been contact with someone there to meet with them?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, we'd sort of to the MP on the ground
often makes inquiries, but we wouldn't attend unless the minister
had approved.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
But was the meeting did you speak to did you
arrange a meeting with an inspector there and then go
get permission from the minister or did you do the
minister first? And actually you haven't got a specific meeting
in mind.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think Shannon Helbert had done some preliminary work, but
we wouldn't do that until the minister had approved the meeting.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Right, Because it sounds like he says, I cannot support
a generic request to visit a police station with no
con for the week to notice. It sounds like he
was worried that if he gave you permission, you were
just going to bowl up there and just sort of
harass people.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
No, No, that's not the practice. It's quite an established
practice that you only speak with someone who's inspector level
or higher, and it's a meeting usually in the station,
and it would be half an hour for an hour.
He'd done it many many times himself. He should know
that it's a pretty standard practice. And the overall concern
is we would not want to politicize the police. So

(02:26):
it's fighting by general rules to make sure the police
are protected from visits and they're not dragged into any
sort of political you.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Know, yeah, fair enough. Who was the inspector, Janine, What
did you want to talk to them about?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, well, we were quite interested in an Auckland retail
crime that has been an ongoing issue for both governments.
So it's important we understand the recent events that have
been acting, how they're impacting upon the community, and also
what measures police are putting into place to reassure the
community that things are being responded to quickly.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Jenny, thank you very much for coming on the show.
Ginny Anderson, Labour's police spokesperson, responding there to Mark Mitchell's
refusal to allow her into the police station in Albany.
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