Breakfast presenter Hayley Holt breaks down on air

Friday, 28 February 2020

An interview about racist mistreatment of Māori by police has reduced Breakfast host Hayley Holt to tears.

The interview on Friday morning was with lawyer and justice advocate Julia Whaipooti, who talked about the dire statistics of Māori in the justice system.

'Do you know how many Māori women I have spoken with who are in abusive relationships, and they would rather not call the state… because they are more scared of that than the fist of their partner they have to deal with every day?' Whaipooti told Breakfast.

'That is a problem, when the system becomes a perpetrator that a people cannot trust.'

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Whaipooti was talking about a new report that found Māori with no criminal record are almost twice as likely to have police take an action against them, and seven times more likely to be charged than Pākehā,

Other research showed police are eight times more likely to use a Taser on Māori than Pākehā.

She criticised new roaming armed police forces targeting Māori and Pacific communities, saying it's a racist policy given the research.

'Racism in policing looks like killing Māori,' Whaipooti said.

After the interview with Whaipooti ended, Holt broke down in tears, telling John Campbell the figures were 'really upsetting'.

'I'm very hormonal obviously,' said Holt, who is pregnant, 'but that is so bad.'