Police Minister Mark Mitchell has decided to block Labour's Ginny Andersen's request to meet with police in Auckland. Photo / Marty Melville
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has decided to block Labour's Ginny Andersen's request to meet with police in Auckland. Photo / Marty Melville
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is refusing to allow Labour’s police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen to meet an Auckland police inspector.
It comes about two years after Mitchell, then National’s police spokesman in Opposition, was blocked from meeting with police leaders by then-Police Minister Poto Williams - a decision he said was “petulant and vindictive”.
Andersen claims Mitchell is “scared of what I might find out” following issues such as redeployment from that station and the result of police pay arbitration which many officers had opposed.
Mitchell has since encouraged Andersen to make another request with more detail about the visit.
The refusal arose after one of Andersen’s staffers wrote to Mitchell’s office on Tuesday, asking for permission for Andersen to visit the Albany police station alongside Shanan Halbert, a Labour list MP and former Northcote MP.
“It looks like he’s scared of what I might find out,” Andersen told the Herald.
Labour police spokeswoman Ginny Andersen is being blocked from meeting with police in Auckland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The intention of the visit, according to Andersen, was so she and Halbert could learn how police were managing community safety in light of a recent shooting in the area.
She also accepted one topic which could be raised was how officers from Albany had reportedly been relocated to help bolster the central Auckland workforce, however she maintained that wasn’t the purpose of the visit.
Andersen, the former police minister, said she hadn’t blocked Mitchell when he was in Opposition from meeting with police leaders and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t afforded similar access.
Andersen suspected Mitchell was concerned about what officers could say following the result of police pay arbitration, in which the Police Association’s proposal wasn’t selected.
A later statement from Mitchell claimed Opposition police spokespeople had traditionally been welcome to request meetings with the Police Commissioner and Mitchell supported that.
However, he said he couldn’t support a “generic request to visit a police station, with no context, with a week’s notice”.
“Ginny and Shanan are welcome to make a request with more detail and more notice.”
Andersen confirmed she would be resubmitting her request with more information.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he didn’t know the context of Mitchell’s decision but said it was up to the minister.
Asked if he was comfortable with ministers preventing Opposition spokespeople from meeting with people relevant to their portfolios, Luxon said he was open to that depending on the organisation and the circumstances.
Act leader David Seymour believed it would be appropriate if there was a “reasonable reason”.
Former Police Minister Poto Williams blocked a request from Mark Mitchell when he was in Opposition. Photo / Mark Mitchell
That came amid tense interactions between the pair in the House.
Mitchell at the time told Newstalk ZB he believed Williams was being petulant and vindictive when he was simply trying to hold her to account.
“It may be uncomfortable being told I don’t think she’s very good at her job and I don’t think she’s across her portfolio, but for her now to use her political power and position in government to start blocking me from meetings - that’s Third World stuff,” Mitchell said in 2022.
“She may as well go and join the Cabinet in Somalia.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
