Police Minister Mark Mitchell says ACT leader David Seymour should have contacted the Independent Police Conduct Authority to share his concerns about police treatment of Philip Polkinghorne, who was last year found not guilty of killing his wife Pauline Hanna.
But Mitchell said it’s up to the public to judge whether Seymour sought to “influence or interfere” when he wrote a support letter for Polkinghorne during the police investigation into the death of Hanna.
“Every local MP has got an important role to play in terms of advancing the constituent’s issues or raising or being a conduit or raising issues, but they must be very careful they cross that line into actively trying to interfere with a ongoing police investigation,” he said.
Much of the concern around Seymour’s 1012-word support letter centres on whether he went too far as an electorate MP. The letter questioned the police for focusing their inquiries on Polkinghorne.
“It’s understandable that police would regard him as a person of interest. But in this instance the police appear to have gone beyond that brief. While acknowledging the difficult balance police must strike, Mr Polkinghorne feels that he has been subject to prejudice from the police in the above actions,” the letter said.
Seymour told Stuff the letter was sent before any charges against Polkinghorne were laid.
“An electorate MP’s job is to serve their constituents. I had a constituent contact me with concerns over the way they felt they had been treated by police. As is made clear in the letter, the intention was to pass on the constituent’s concerns to police,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Monday described the letter as “ill-advised”.
Seymour hit back, retorting it was Luxon’s comments that were ill-advised.
I don’t like mob justice, I detest trial by media and I can’t stand idle while someone is getting unfairly attacked.
I appreciate that we all want to skullfuck David Seymour, and you should be incandescent with rage at the shit ACT are pulling, but consistently attacking him for something he was righteous in is not the way you beat him, it’s the way you empower him and with the warning of Trump still blazing in our Brians, one would have imagined the Left would be focused on how to successfully destroy their enemy rather than hand them the bloody Treasury benches!
Couple of things about David writing a support letter for a constituent:
1 – This is what bloody MPs do! They are the last defence of a person being screwed over by the State.
2 – Seymour didn’t write this letter as a Minister, it was before he became a Minister, if he did it as a Minister there would be a bigger threshold for him to get over, but that issue isn’t relevant to this situation.
3 – There is a allegation Polkinghorne donated money to ACT, which might make it a bigger issue if there is a link between the timing but that seems highly unlikely.
4 – The difference between Maurice Williamson in 2014 and David in 2025 when it comes to Williamson’s defence of a constituent was the nature of that relationship. Maurice was less an electorate representative to the Chinese Businessman accused of domestic violence and was more a servant who helped the Chinese Businessman with work dos at his batch FFS. David Seymour isn’t going over to Polky’s house to paint the place for sale is he? That was the level of relationship Maurice was accused of having for the Chinese Businessman.
5 – And he’s the kicker – Seymour was right! The entire Polkinghorne case was joke, the cops never should have brought it to trial and Polkinghorne should be legitimately furious at the way he was prosecuted.
Again, we all want to skullfuck Seymour for the terrible shit he’s doing, but this is a waste of energy.
Voters are holding on by their fingernails and want to know what we as the Left are offering them.
Voters don’t care about Polky support letters, Landrovers up stairs or other Outrage Olympics and you would have thought after watching Trump manipulate this game we would be smarter.
It’s the Rights’ poisonous anti-treaty agenda, naked policy for donors on a burning planet and contempt for public services Voters care about and we need solutions to those problems.
Attacking Seymour for doing his job as an electorate MP for a constituent that no one particularly likes is not where ACT will be undermined.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
“……after watching Trump manipulate this game we would be smarter.”
Exhibit A – OneNews
Exhibit B – NZME
Exhibit C – Stuff
Exhibit D – RNZ
I rest my case your honor
Technically Atlas Dave squeaks through here, but if Polky is proven to have donated to ACT this surely changes. And I still maintain that if a Lab/Green/TPM MP had supported our meth head friend the hounds of hell would have been unleashed on them by media.
Yes there are bigger fish to fry in terms of promoting pro working class policies of all kinds…but…any chance to further expose David Seymour’s hypocrisy and true politics should be taken to destabilise the CoC Govt. and hopefully instigate an early election.
Well said. Thank you.
If you were talking about about a parking ticket or even being harassed by police for being white and smart with words, I could understand your local electorate argument. But come on — this was Epsom and the dude was being investigated for murder. Where’s the judgement there from Seymore? Also he such a sanctimonious p**** at the best of times, he doesn’t usually give a damn about context, he’s an attack dog
Martyn I quite agree as a member of parliament David Seymour SHOULD help people with their problems. In the final analysis that is what MPs are for.
But is it not ironic that Luxon and National Party members are criticising him for doing his job properly while tacitly consenting to his shitfuckery over the Treaty?
What does it say about the state of the Coalition that they are disturbed by one of the far-right doing the RIGHT thing?
You have a point about the letter though it’s easy to be wise in hindsight about the wisdom or otherwise of having a prosecution. The Land Rover episode however shows DS’s fundamental silliness and immaturity. He didn’t seek permission to do such a thing. Still worse, and you should champion him here Martyn, was his arrogance towards the security guard. No, DS is not fit for the job and I hope he’ll be bundled out at the soonest democratic opportunity.
Comments are closed.