Deputy Commissioner Provost’s evasions on Morning Report today leave me sorry for the lower level staff who remain committed to the law, and to simple honesty. They must feel ashamed when HQ’s culture is publicly displayed.

It can’t be long before the gap between Wellington and the frontline is as wide as it is in Corrections. When HQ show they want to be lied to, they’ll get from cynical staff exactly what they want.

Bill Ralston, until recently the top man at the heart of our state television news service, said on camera  three weeks ago that the NZ Police had become politically corrupted. No-one even thought it newsworthy enough to follow up to find out why.

As an MP I found Police HQ to be politically biased strangers to the truth, on a range of issues. We all saw the disgraceful decision not to prosecute corrupt election spending. In one inquiry my Select Committee found senior Police to be unreliable witnesses, so seriously that we considered using our formal powers against them.

I received patently false answers to Parliamentary written questions. 

They were the worst of all departments for answering Offical Information Act requests, simply ignoring the inconvenient ones. VUW’s Steven Price found the  police to be the worst in terms of compliance in his recent study of the operation of that Act.

Rampant political correctness at the top levels of the Police was always likely to lead this way. It creates a culture of deceit. When Police are the shambles we see in Corrections, however, the consequences will be much more serious.