Matt Scoles: Acting Southern District Commander Inspector on Wanaka's underage drinking incident

Police are telling parents to take responsibility after a mass disorder incident in Wanaka in the early hours of yesterday morning. 

Around 300 young people, including many drunk and underage gathered at a park with multiple fights breaking out, and some knocked unconscious.

Acting Southern District Commander Inspector talks with Tim Beveridge about this. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
Police are telling parents to take responsibility after a mass
disorder incident in Waraka. Around three hundred young people, including
many drunken underage, gathered at a park, with multiple fights
breaking out and some noted unconscious. Police say holidaymakers need
to keep track of your kids. Acting Southern District Commander
Inspector Matt Skulls is with me, Matt, good morning more

(00:40):
than who you Yeah, good sounds chaotic? Is this on
the kids or the parents?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I guess ilimately it's on both. I'm not here to
tell anyone how they need to bear their children are
young people, but I guess ultimately we're we're asking the
We're trying to remind them about the teacher reunifications of
young people who having exist of our coll and large
amounts of our coal g Sultimately also being giving a

(01:11):
few drinks might be an issue that Yeah, young people
gather together sween. We often seems to come to pe
pusher in making court decisions.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Are they getting the where are they getting the alcohol from?
Is it from the parents or is it from older siblings.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
What do you know? Well, I mean I can't talk
to that necessarily, but I guess ultimately we we imagine
that they were being supplied by the appearents, or we're
giving them for executive to say, from from older siblings
or all the bud and some other way to give it,
give it themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Are you worried about this culture of underig's drinking drinking
in New Zealand?

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Okay, well of course when they are you know, big
big drivers of demand. Uh we we really, I think
we all know there existive more in a project consumption
and the CAUs of significant contributor to the social harm
where the marks their community were. We work for police,

(02:11):
we're consistently with partners and community to try to foster
culture responsible drinking, and we want to reduce alcohol over defending.
So it's a consuming when we when we are having
to reduce months.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Is it sort of inevitable that parents let their kids
go off on a holiday place like Wanaka on their own?
Is it? What can we do about sort of stopping
this sort of thing happening? I guess.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
It's I guess ultimate it's inevitable. Mu Zian is a
a really really safe place, and we can and we've
been comfortable over eons leaving out young people go and
enjoy themselves in We're still certainly not about stopping or
restricting their hitting. We want our own people to have fun,

(03:00):
but we want them to be able to make good
decisions as well. And I guess that's what we're encouraging
coge Puris to do, is just make sure that they
know who the young people are in, you know, saying
king A frequently met and Kennedyhaw Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well hopefully you want to runother one to put up
with Matt, but really appreciate your time this morning. That's
Acting Southern District Commander Inspector matt' skulls.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
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