At first the operator could not understand Mr Liu.
Mr Liu said his English was not good and he wanted someone who spoke Mandarin, but the operator continued with the conversation and said his English was fine.
"Your wife is English?" the operator asked.
"My wife's English is okay," Mr Liu said.
Minutes later, the operator asked whether he's come home and "someone's stolen your house". He then said Mr Liu's wife should call them in the morning.
Close to seven minutes into the call, the operator asked if Mr Liu spoke Cantonese and then spent minutes trying to find a Mandarin-speaker to help.
Labour police spokesman Kelvin Davis told RNZ it was "ridiculous" there were no dedicated translators available outside business hours.
He said police budget cuts were no excuse.
"Whether it's Mandarin or Cantonese or Samoan or Tongan, any New Zealander or any person who's ringing up the police communication centre asking for help is obviously stressed at the time they're making the call.
"The last thing they need is to just be totally misunderstood," he said.
Police National Headquarters said there were no dedicated translators to deal with emergency 111 calls at communications centres throughout the country.
A spokesperson said a number of police communications staff were bilingual, covering about 18 languages in total.
When staff needed extra help they used translation service Language Line, the spokesperson said.
Criminal Bar Association president Tony Bouchier told RNZ police had refused to bring in interpreters in a number of drink-driving cases he had defended.
"Well it's important that people when they are dealing with police, that they are able to communicate in a meaningful way," he told RNZ.
"If they're in some sort of custody situation, that they have access to interpreters, or if they're phoning the police to report some sort of crime or an incident," he said.
The police said they weren't aware of any complaints relating to language difficulties.
