Police admit motels data they tried to hide ‘paints a very unattractive picture’
A more than 900% spike in police call-outs to just five Rotorua emergency housing motels can finally be revealed after the Ombudsman ruled data requested by Stuff a year-and-a-half ago, which the police admitted “paints a very unattractive picture”, should be released.
Back in January 2022, Stuff asked police to provide data on the number of times they had been called to five motels in 2016 – before their use for emergency accommodation – and also in 2020 and 2021.
Police declined to provide that information, citing privacy reasons and commercial interests.
Stuff referred the matter to the Ombudsman and more than 18 months later, it ruled police should hand over the data.
The numbers revealed that across five motels, which Stuff agreed not to name, there were just 46 call-outs over the whole of 2016.
That figure rocketed in 2020 to 259 call-outs, spiking again the following year to 491 call-outs.
From 2016 to 2021, that was a staggering 967 per cent increase in call-outs.
After investigating the matter the Ombudsman ruled that “New Zealand Police should not have refused the request”.
The written ruling also revealed police sought to keep the figures private as “the data paints a very unattractive picture” for the motels involved.
“This is particularly relevant given that MSD had engaged the services of significantly more motel service providers in the region,” police said.
Rotorua National MP Todd McClay blasted the initial police decision to keep the data covered up, and suggested political interference played a role.
As if anyone in the Labour Government were clever enough to hide data like this, there is certainly political interference, but it’s not from the Politicians, it will from the Bureaucrats covering each others arses.
The exact same thing is happening over in Rehabilitation with John Campbell finding out that what passes as male violence programs is nothing more than an underfunded box ticking exercise.
Which of course is what it is.
The underfunded joke of NZ regulations is no where better exemplified than with Megan Woods comments that the Healthy Homes programme is barely policed and that she just ‘trusts’ Landlords to do the right thing!
There is an unspoken neoliberal straightjacket agreement between the Wellington Bureaucratic Elite and the Political Class, the Politicians won’t force real taxation on the wealthiest to properly fund our social services in return for political cover so that when those underfunded services fail, no one is ever held to account.
Kettling the homeless into Motels with none of the real service wrap arounds was of course always going to fail.
Our box ticking male violence ‘rehab’ programmes are in the exact same situation as well as any policing of Landlords, everything its underfunded and poorly policed and people just fall through the cracks.
We are so focused on underfunding everything and then covering up the problems caused by that underfunding is what Politics actually is in NZ.
Consider how undertaxed we really are and at how successful the neoliberal agenda has been in allowing the mega wealthy to get away with a rigged casino.
Welcome to the Land of the Wrong Uptight Crowd!
There are 38 OECD countries.
NZ is the only country without a CGT.
NZ is one of 13 without an estate or inheritance tax.
NZ is one of 3 without a different tax rate for food.
NZ ranks sixth for net wealth.
NZ tax take, spending and debt are below the OECD average.
The message is clear.
If you want properly funded services and not the current jokes, Tax. The. Rich.
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