‘It incites rage’ - Police verdict on Luxon interview
Saturday, 16 March 2024
Tova O’Brien is Stuff’s Chief Political Correspondent and host of the weekly political podcast, Tova. Listen to the latest episode, An interview with the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
ANALYSIS: Soon after our interview with the Prime Minister for the Tova podcast, the messages started coming in from Police and from their partners.
Some described what they called his “arrogance”, another said “tone deaf”.
One detective who’s been with the force for over two decades and is also a single mother of a teenager explained that she hadn’t joined the force for the pay but that life was not easy, not only trying to balance things financially but the mental strain as well:
“Police in our district are so frustrated and saddened by the government. Morale is at an all time low where staff including myself who have dedicated years of our lives to helping others are not valued at all.”
Her distress was palpable as she wrote about how she’d never even considered leaving but now felt forced to.
“I emailed the NSW police force myself asking if they recognise our service and rank and they replied within an hour confirming they are developing a program for this and to keep in contact over the next few weeks.”
This isn’t just rookie cops - which was bad enough - we’re now losing top cops too.
In another message, the wife of a constable six years in the force, and who’s just passed his sergeant exam, described why the interview invoked such anger:
“Constantly talking about giving police more tools and backing police. It incites rage.”
“Great interview,” she said.
Not so, according to the Prime Minister.
“Classic tabloid stuff from Stuff,” Christopher Luxon called it, caught on a hot mic shortly after the interview.
From go to whoa, the interview with the Prime Minister lasted 9 minutes and four seconds.
More than half the interview - five minutes and six seconds - was dedicated to questions about Police and their pay.
Including questions the Prime Minister didn’t have the numbers for, like how many NZ Police have skipped the ditch to Australia under his watch.
“Look, I mean, I don't have the numbers, you know, since the last 107 days we've been in power but it is an important number and we are tracking it.”
In Northern Territories alone and only since December, 35 have applied to join their force, another eight are about to graduate from the early December course.
Luxon also couldn’t say how much a trainee cop earns, “Ah, I don't know off the top of my head but imagine it's about… there's numbers in my head but I’m not going to say what they are yup.”
Asked if he wanted to take a stab at it, he took a punt: “$90,000”.
A trainee police officer in New Zealand earns $50,834.
It’s less than the $52,000 accommodation allowance the Prime Minister was claiming to live in his own Wellington apartment.
“Well just just say I think conflating those two issues is a bit unfair.”
Maybe, maybe not. But Police are conflating those two issues.
The Police Association has received a record 1,200 emails into the inbox they’ve dedicated to pay negotiations and many of them draw the comparison between Police pay and Luxon being “entitled to the entitlement”.
Despite the strength of feeling against the government’s latest pay offer, in the interview, Luxon still reaffirms his government's promise to add 500 extra Police to the beat this term.
Though he’s now calling it a goal: “We're going to have a government with some ambition and aspiration and a clear goal that we're heading towards.”
When asked about whether his government has set aside any more money for negotiations, especially in light of giving Police new, more dangerous work disrupting gangs, Luxon repeats a claim that the government has made Police an “enhanced offer”, something a source close to the negotiations laughed at in disbelief.
Five minutes and six seconds into the interview, the conversation turns to tax.
The PM gives an assurance his government won’t lift GST this term or next and he promises not to tinker with the Winter Energy Payment this term or next either.
He won’t say, however, if the Best Start Payment will be means tested in the first year.
That’s the $60 a week payment that goes to parents of newborns. For the first year, every parent is eligible, then the payment is reduced in the second and third year when the family’s income exceeds $79,000.
Watch this space.
The Prime Minister also gives an assurance his tax cuts won’t be delayed or miscalculated, like the promised return of interest deductibility for landlords has been.
Oddly though, he can’t give an assurance that the Government won’t need to borrow to pay for the tax cuts - something he and his Finance Minister have ad nauseam promised not to do. Even on pain of resignation in the case of Nicola Willis.
It’s likely he’s simply managing expectations here or establishing some ground rules about not divulging Budget details as the May date gets nearer.
If his changing language does mean they are being forced to borrow to pay for the cuts, the PM is about to find himself in a world of pain far deeper than any allegations of hypocrisy about Teslas or living allowances.
Incidentally, two things the Prime Minister was asked about in an interview with NZME’s The Country shortly after his interview with Stuff.
Host Jamie Mackay: “I want to talk to you about your political radar. Has it gone astray? I’m talking about the accommodation allowance and the Tesla, obviously, last year.”
It was a similar question, albeit a much abridged version, of the final question Luxon was asked in our interview - the one that earned the “classic tabloid” rebuke.
Our version [of the political radar question] had more examples, you can see in the video above, and sure, it lasted 47 seconds.
But it doesn’t change the fact that the majority of the interview was about police, people who put their lives on the line to keep the rest of us safe.
Calling that tabloid, risks showing contempt for police.
Which is about the last thing they feel they need right now.