The jaw dropping hypocrisy of National over prison riot 

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Waikeria Prison protest: National Party MPs turned away at gate

National Party MPs have been turned away at the gate while trying to visit Waikeria Prison.

The protest at the jail in Ōtorohanga is now in its fifth day, with inmates still camped out on the roof after burning buildings down.

National’s spokesman for Corrections, Simeon Brown, and National’s Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger tried to visit the prison on Saturday, but were turned away.

The jaw dropping hypocrisy of National over the Waikeria prison riot is truly one of the great political con jobs of 2021 despite the year only being 2 days old!

National don’t give a fuck about prisoner rights or prisoner welfare, THEY were the ones who gleefully robbed prisoners of voting rights and have created the very conditions of state sanctioned spite that has led directly to this riot!

They have played to the lesser angels of our nature whipped up by a mainstream media who love to hysterically portray the worst criminal acts despite violent crime plummeting over the last 5 decades.

National are only pretending to care because it is damaging Kelvin Davis, this is disingenuous political theatre from a Party who created the very environment that led to prison conditions so appalling that rioting is the only way.

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The National Party care more about the damage to the bloody prison than the ongoing abuse of prisoner rights!

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43 COMMENTS

  1. Well said. Simeon B looks like the insect he’s acting like, she’s an idiot, this is pathetic band-wagon jumping. Neither have anything to offer except inadequacy personified – carrying umbrellas. Really grubby.

  2. Politicians strutting around like barnyard roosters going “look at me, look at me”.

    It is crystal clear that these prisoners have no idea what they want except this destroy the place. Davis is 100% correct, stay the hell of it. This is not his or nanny politicians area of expertise.

    • But X-ray, Brown is a hollow-chested banker, and Kuriger is a cow cocky… surely this makes the pair of them expert at something or other besides having their photos taken, damp with moisture, during a highly stressful escalating humanitarian crisis ?

    • Oh so they have no real grievance do you think.

      Grubby clothes, grubby sheets, having to ask for toilet paper, for goodness sake if we treat people badly they will behave badly. It is all pretty disgusting and my thoughts are with the prisoners on the roof and their whanau waiting outside the gate.

    • What the fuck? “It is crystal clear that these prisoners have no idea what they want ….” Don’t you bother doing any reading before jumping on your vituperative keyboard. The reasons for the ‘prison reform protest’ are all over the media and internet.
      Have you ever been to the unit that has been burned? It was built prior to WWI and was positively medieval even then. That it still existed said all that needed to be about the ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ brigade that has been pandered to by successive Governments. For at least four decades, both National and Labour, along with sundry minor parties have used the ‘law and order’ finagle to place their collective backsides on the Government benches. What have we seen in that time? massive use of community based sentences and a 200+% use of incarceration.
      The strutting of politicians is not new. The dire conditions of prisons could never have existed if Governments had bothered to look after the interests of all New Zealanders, not just the privileges of sneering wankers who think that respect for human rights is the preserve of ‘nanny politicians’.
      It is sobering to realise that the country has given the current Government an overwhelming mandate to implement social change that has the potential to have all New Zealanders able to live in dignity and take meaningful steps that would rid the country of the blight of unacceptable justice and corrections failures. What are they doing? Sweet F-all! They can’t even insist that 16 people are accorded their internationally recognised right to food and clean water as is required by law.
      Shame on you X-RAY!!! You and your ilk are the problem.

      • No mate. You’ve been an angry boy from the moment you got here and you’ve still got a massive attitude problem. Chill out son.

        • Don’t you have something a bit more substantial than an inane and juvenile comment to contribute? Go off and double bunk with your friend X-Ray while indulging in a bit of mutual hot urine sharing since you approve of that sort of thing.

      • Calm the fuck down. ” Nanny” was a typo auto correct, meant to read as “any” politician. None do.

        They have asked for Kaumatua to speak to to, then they would surrender, they didn’t
        Then they wanted Rawiri Waititi, or an MP, who attended. That achieved nothing. Who honestly knows what is going on?

        Who are they, why are they there? Media states several are deported criminals from Australia. What did they did there?

        I am not supportive of inhumane treatment of anyone but I also don’t group think these prisoners started off this destruction as a cool and concise political demonstration either. And I don’t buy into manufactured narratives that this is a group of deep thinking good guys either. Way too many unanswered questions.

        • You obviously missed out on the ‘deep thinking good guys’ gene as well! “Calm the fuck down” is hardly an intelligent response to being called out on your lack of reading before commenting. Also, it was obviously a serious oversight not assuming you had an autocorrect malfunction.

    • Nact – Tough on crime, high rate of “reoffending” results
      Nact – 3 strikes law
      Nact – Privatising prisons with a plethora of bullshit promises about taha Maori programes.
      Nact – Double bunking
      Nact – Corporate tax reduction.
      Nact – Cuts to Social Spending
      Nact – Increased immigration affecting housing.
      Nact – Promoting off short purchase of housing and land
      Nact – Benefit cuts increasing poverty
      Nact – No housing crisis while families sleep in cars
      Nact – Widening gap between rich and the majority
      Nact – An ever growing yawning chasm between rich and poor
      Nact – etc – you get the picture

  3. “…this is disingenuous political theatre from a Party who created the very environment that led to prison conditions so appalling that rioting is the only way.”

    Yes, the only reason National are now interested is because there is money to be transfered to private construction firms during the rebuild. I would be frisking those two National MP muppets for measuring equipment!

    As PR thing, supporters might be better off not concentrating on the “this is a protest not a riot” line, and instead pop over to PAPA and reiterate the first hand prison guard anecdotes about conditions prior to the action, such as that toilet paper wasn’t even be supplied. Guards laughed and told them to use their hands.
    Riots are the explosive protests of silenced people in extreme conditions, but the kind of person who argues a riot is worse than a protest therefore ignorable, isn’t capable of listening to reason. Better that Maori Party et. al. stick to the facts – which are far more illuminating – than argue over terms that smudge too easily.

  4. Simeon Brown obviously needs his centre of attention moment albeit a passing one like a fart.

    I don’t like the little runt. He isn’t capable of thinking things through without probably getting approval from his beloved Judith Collins.

    All in all to me Brown is sycophantic. But he is also a reflection of his beloved NZ National Party. They conveniently forget through selective amnesia all the times they got involved in matters and/or turned a blind eye to concerns.

    I am sure in this instance their main ‘concern’ is be seen trying to be ‘democratic’. We all know National don’t contain the nous to have anyones'(except themselves)best interest at heart.

    Lets remember history when there have been a National government and the number of times they(National)even changed rules and laws when it suited them.

    Here is an interesting article in regards to the Muldoon government and abortion. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/114773379/new-zealands-abortion-reforms-are-a-functional-mess-how-did-we-get-here. Read the part of abortion being in the Crimes Act.

    And so today, 2021, National are trying to preen themselves to be looking like perfection but like I said so easily forgetting their abhorrent actions of the past.

  5. Seems to me Kelvin Davis has done nothing to help resolve this.
    Why shouldn’t the nats call him out however disingenuous. Democracy at work.

  6. Okay so what is this government doing to fix the situation? Um yeah, but um we could blah blah blah. Sick and tired of our side taking pot shots at National when it’s our side in power. We’ve had a term and now Labour have a significant majority. So what the hell are we doing to fix this situation? As well as inequality, poverty, hardship, climate change, workers rights, renters rights, home ownership, infrastructure and every other crisis in this country? That’s right, stuff all. But let’s keep pointing out the hypocrisy of National. Because that’s really important isnt it. Wake the hell! Ardern and co are no better and in a lot of ways significantly worse. But blue team bad, red team good. How truly pathetic this country has become.

    • Agree. National Labour National Labour………whoopty shit..

      Social democrats invaded Iraq

      What the fuck has Labour done??????

      What the fuck is Kelvin Davis doing?

      • You may not be aware of what is being done but that doesn’t mean nothing is being done. There are currently extensions being built at Waikeria to accommodate 2000 prisoners in another part of the complex. Water quality is a serious problem for both guards and prisoners and the new extensions will sort that out. However, like most of the problems National left for everyone else to fix, they can’t be fixed in 5 minutes. National trying to push for everything to be fixed in 5 minutes is simply political BS of their own making.

    • Seems like this Government did exactly the right thing, they stayed out of it.
      They could have stormed in and played they arrogant bully Government like National would have, you know Collins, get tough on crime or Bridges “Strikeforce Raptor”
      National were significantly worse than Labour has been!

      • The Government did the right thing??? Leaving the country open to justifiable accusations of depriving people of basic human rights that, without too much of a stretch, was torture.

        • I am afraid Bert has his blinkers on as do so many in this country who have fallen under the Jacinda spell

        • Toture was the prisoner who was attacked when they attempted to surrender on New Year’s Eve.
          A peaceful protest? I think not.
          Come on Trev and AOM, give me your take on what you would have done?
          As for blinkers Trev, I suggest you take take your John Key ones off, he’s why our prisons are the way they are. You have what I can only describe as Trump syndrome where you still think National “won” the election.

          • I have never praised John Key as a person . I feel he did a good job with the GFC crisis and the way he and his government handled the earthquake . There were some mistakes but that is to be expected.
            The prisons wee not fit for purpose a long time before Key came on the scene.
            I have never said National won this last election as in my mind they did not deserve to as they lacked any vision and at the time I congratulated your side for win in such away they did not need to answer to other parties .
            The situation has ended in the best way possible but with no,help from Kelvin Davis or anyone from Labour
            Kelvin by all accounts is a nice guy but over the last 4 years has done little to earn respect as a minister of corrections or tourism.
            During the covid crisis Jacinda was there everyday with Bloomfield giving us the reassurance of a government in control not just a public servant. Davis should have done the same standing there to let his staff know e had their back not stay silent.

    • Mickey
      The Coalition had a term not Labour.

      But now Labour is in what is its mandate beyond covid19 while not loosing the plot with covid.
      Lets hear some clear direction.

  7. Using prisons as torture chambers to sate our lust for vengeance must be abolished if we’re to call ourselves civilised.
    Lets try taxing foreign banksters into fleeing our beautiful AO/NZ, decriminalising ALL street drugs, introduce a living wage and re nationalise our taxes-paid-for assets instead ?
    Poverty and hardship puts most people in jail and it’s ironic that the two natzo’s seen above are swaggering about in shameless self promotion on six figures plus entitlements and expenses.

  8. A good quote from Amnesty. Though it is unlikely prison protestors will be given amnesty for turning themselves in at this point. At least their longer sentences will be in better cells.

    “The protesters in detention have already raised concerns about inhumane treatment. Further denying the humanity of all involved through tactics such as using excessive force, or withholding food and water, will only escalate an already difficult situation.”
    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/123860610/waikeria-prison-corrections-minister-should-honour-requests-for-humane-treatment-justice-groups-say

  9. I am sorry to say I agree that in this situation National should limit their aim at the non action of Kelvin Davis and not get involved in seeming to care for the prisoners.
    All prisoners need to be treated as human beings no matter who they are or what they have done . At some point these people will be released and the more they are demeaned in prison the more pain they will hand out to society.

    • Do some research, Davis followed the right process and allowed negotiators and to do their job. The fact the prison was badly damaged can not be attributed to peaceful protests! As highlighted the majority of those involved in the event were members of the Mongols and Comancheros gangs, not all are looking to be “reformed”.
      Or do you suggest brute force like say Nationals “Strikeforce Raptor” or National’s “tough on crime” stance given your empathy for prisoners?

      • Serious initiatives with resource backing need to be made in breaking the cycle of jail being a recruiting ground for gangs and a university of crime.
        Many gang member know of few choices when they get out.
        Some serious training in work skills and time outside actually working in areas not with affiliated gang presence.
        Maori organisations may be enlisted and paid for local support during out of prison training and employment attempting to build both alternative work and social connection and support.
        A series of pilot programmes may bring some successes and hope.
        Carrying on the way things are will just ensure the increase in gang membership and fill prisons as we have now. The crime / gang scene will only get worse.
        The Scandinavian model where prisoners are treated like people with worth is highly successful but a transition will need to be scaled up slowly and well resourced with expertise not just goons as keepers who will damage themselves in their dishing out of inhumane interaction and punishments.
        Surely divide and rule is a known axiom.
        Many potential prospects for effective rehabilitation are locked into gang regimes controlled by often the most damaged and hence violent multiple “reoffenders”.

        So who runs the joint, a systematic entrenchment of the status quo or enlightenment for change and breaking the cycle.

        If NZ is serious about a safe and healthy community, the poverty and excessive uncaring wealth has to be addressed with more than lip service.
        We do have a serious criminal element with a system of parasitic bleeding of communities across NZ. They will stop any change that threaten their wealth gathering as they want the maximum they can extract and bare no responsibility for the on stream consequences for society and the underbelly of crime, its victims and poverty.

        https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12?op=1&r=US&IR=T

        “As Bastoy prisoner governor Arne Wilson, also a clinical psychologist, explained to The Guardian:

        In closed prisons we keep them locked up for some years and then let them back out, not having had any real responsibility for working or cooking.

        In the law, being sent to prison is nothing to do with putting you in a terrible prison to make you suffer. The punishment is that you lose your freedom. If we treat people like animals when they are in prison they are likely to behave like animals. Here we pay attention to you as human beings.”

        A more in depth analysis of the highly successful prison system and its community back ground.

        https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/48/2/119/422635

        The USA on the other hand has a prison industry with 750 inmates per 100,00 with a “re offending” rate of three times that of Scandinavia which has an incarceration rate that is one tenth of the USA rate.

        Change in NZ will cost but be less expensive in the long run fiscally as well as potentially having a more productive and contributive cross section of society. Less children will be born into families with criminal and gang lifestyles.

  10. Once again most here including Martyn have put the red shutters down. Yes a couple of Nat MP’s turned up to take advantage of the situation. They’re the opposition thats what they do. Better than that, they did something, which is a way lot more that their Labour counterparts. Davis is a pathetic excuse for a Minister and maybe didn’t want his holiday interrupted, but at least the Nats recognised some leadership from somewhere was needed. This Government is consistent. Consistently useless. Instead of bagging the Nats Why don’t you all put the boot where it’s needed. Starting with invisible JA.

  11. “The National Party care more about the damage to the bloody prison than the ongoing abuse of prisoner rights!”

    While you may be correct, any and every MP has the right to inspect a prison under the Corrections Act 2004. So barring Brown from the prison is an illegal act.

    Kelvin Davis being absent from his portfolio is just more of the same: He’s been told by his boss not to front with the press because he always puts his foot in it. The man is definitely not the sharpest knife in the box.

    While it’s good to let the prison management manage, he is ultimately responsible because he’s the minister in charge. Exactly how many prison inspections has he made since he got into the role?

    If the problem is overcrowding, could Labour’s failure to build new prisons be at the root of all this? 😉

    • And @Andrew, where were the ACT Party politicians while all this was happening? David Seymour and the ACT crew did the sensible thing by NOT visiting Waikeria for a photo op like National’s spokesman for Corrections, Simeon Brown, and National’s Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger. ACT saw that this cunning stunt by these two interloping Natz was just another tranche of Dirty Politics, smear politics, gotcha politics, rent-a-crowd politics. If Peter Dunne did anything in politics in previous coalitions with Natz, it was to be a sensible worm and know when to shut up and let the grown-ups and experts fix things. Especially when it was successive NACT/United Future coalitions that provided tinder, and fanned the flames of this latest riots.

      • Peter Dunne was a do nothing politician like the gNats. The difference between the two governments is this: When Dunne was Minister of Internal Affairs I sent him an email about an issue in that Ministry and never received a reply. The issue I asked about was reasonable but was never investigated, let alone anything done about it. If you email Jacinda about an issue, her secretary acknowledges receipt then forwards it onto Jacinda plus to the respective Minister. The Minister either replies to your email or a short time later the issue requested is actioned. That’s the difference between National led governments and Labour Governments. National gives you ignorance and Labour provides solutions. It’s obvious which government is preferred.

    • Yes, we should have sent in all of National and ACT MP’s to check on the prisoners during the riots, would have been a win, win, given their dislike for gangs.

      • Why don’t you spend more time critiquing your beloved Labour Party and the incumbent Government which is missing in action again Bert. We know National aren’t doing it but this Government does nothing it thinks might be unpopular. Especially during the holiday break.

        • Critique when appropriate New View.
          Explain what you expected Davis to do, go in with the armed forces?
          I believe by giving no oxygen to the prisoners and allowing Mana Whenua and corrections/ negotiators to do their job without political interference was justified as many experts noted. The fact a few rightwing commentators want Davis’s head on a spike is historical . The facts will come to bare that criminals were responsible for this and not protestors, duely noted by the attack on a prisoner trying to give himself up.
          New View, your beloved right wing rhetoric is like a broken record.

      • No Bert, just Natz, after all, it was only National’s spokesman for Corrections, Simeon Brown, and National’s Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger that wanted public exposure. Sensible politicians like ACT, knew when to leave it to the expert negotiators. ACT are sensible worms, Natz are just dirty politics worms. Has Judith Collins commented yet? Would be interesting to see what her comments would be? Firing squad? Fingernail removal? Strikeforce Raptor? Crushed and gently shaken, not stirred (commensurate with new softer, friendly, eco-version, recycled Collins). What would the new leader of Natz (elect), Chris Luxon think about it all?

        So many questions, so much dirty politics to sift through.

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