7 September 2022
Media: Local Democracy Reporter
Topic: Newly released prisoners being released to Rotorua
Enquiry
*NOTE: this request was also sent to Corrections, police, MHUD, MSD and the Minister for Housing
A Rotorua mayoral candidate is claiming recently-released prisoners / "convicted criminals" are being 'relocated' to Rotorua's emergency housing motels (see his press release below).
He claims the people have "no ties" to Rotorua.
There is the possibility I may get more comments from Sandford this morning, as a heads up.
I would like to invite Corrections, Police, the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Housing Minister to respond to these allegations.
Questions for Corrections:
If Sandford's claims are correct:
How many recently released prisoners have been relocated to Rotorua?
Of those, how many have ties to Rotorua?
How many have been recalled to prison?
How long has it been happening / when did it begin? Is it ongoing? If it has ceased, why?
Have they been placed in various motels or concentrated at a particular number of motels - if so, how many motels?
Is this something Corrections has coordinated / communicated with MSD and Police?
Sandford is claiming Corrections needs to 'come clean' on this - why has this not been communicated to the public?
Questions for Police
Is this something the Police are aware of, as Sandford alleges?
Is it placing strain on police resourcing in Rotorua?
Questions for MSD
If Sandford's claims are correct, why has MSD taken this approach? From which Ministry did this action arise? Was it MSD or Corrections or both? Or something else?
What considerations were made for the safety of the released prisoners, the other inhabitants of emergency housing and the wider community of Rotorua?
How much has it cost MSD to house these clients (recently released prisoners) in emergency accommodation in motels?
Question for MHUD
Have any of these recently released prisoners been placed in MHUD managed motels?
Questions for the council / mayor:
Is the council aware of this? If so, what has its response been?
Questions for the Housing Minister:
(If Sandford's claims are correct:)
Were you aware of this? If so, how long have you been aware?
What is your view of it? Have you raised any concerns about it? If so, what?
Do you believe this is fair on the Rotorua community and Rotorua police given the social harm perceived and expressed by the Rotorua community about emergency housing in motels?
What is your view on this programme's impact on Rotorua as a community and a tourist destination?
BEN SANDFORD PRESS RELEASE
Rotorua Mayoral candidate Ben Sandford is calling on Corrections to come clean to locals about their relocating of recently released prisoners to Rotorua.
“Through the campaign I have been privately approached by both Police and Corrections staff about the relocation of prisoners from around New Zealand, with no ties to Rotorua, to our emergency housing motels, saying that they have grave concerns around community safety and wellbeing”.
Sandford is calling on Corrections to stop the pipeline they’ve created to Rotorua.
“It is simply unacceptable for Corrections to be releasing prisoners to Rotorua from around the country. We don’t need convicted criminals who have no connections other than possible criminal affiliations to our city. We also don’t have the additional police to help manage this. There have been recently released prisoners with high needs being placed into emergency accommodation that is unsuitable and unable to meet their security needs.
"It’s not fair on Rotorua, it’s not fair to the other residents in emergency housing, and it’s not fair on our residents who are living close to where they are being relocated”.
With all of the furore from the Sunday show, Sandford believes that a critical component of the Rotorua situation was missed and needs to be addressed.
“Rotorua deserves to know what is happening in our community and we need this to stop. As Mayor I will advocate as strongly as possible to get this stopped. It’s an issue of community safety and a Council under my watch will put community safety at the top of its list”.
Response
Mayor Chadwick provided the following comment:
This is very concerning and I will address it with ministers directly. It's unacceptable for our already distressed community, especially given our repeated calls for a halt on people being sent to emergency housing in Rotorua from elsewhere.
We have previously heard of this anecdotally and have been passing on our concerns to government officials and we’ll continue to advocate for this to be addressed as we also continue to push for all government agencies to come to the table and work with us to get our emergency housing situation sorted.
It highlights why this is such a complex issue and why we need all agencies at the table – so we can get real and positive change and avoid unintended consequences that come when agencies aren’t working together and someone pulls a lever that impacts elsewhere. It just feeds this perverse emergency housing market and we need it to stop.
We are doing all we can as a council but need the government to take responsibility for getting all of its agencies on board and working towards shared outcomes for our community.
Good work happening to try and improve our emergency housing situation is undermined by system settings with no active oversight or screening and by the impact on our community of crime and anti-social behaviour happening in the proximity of these facilities in a concentrated area. That’s something I’ve raised with ministers previously and I’ll continue to advocate strongly for the changes we need to get better outcomes for our community.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Rotorua Weekender
Topic: Citizenship Ceremony
Enquiry
I went along to the citizenship ceremony today but had to leave a little early - just wondered if I can confirm when the last citizenship ceremony was/how long it has been?
And a bit of a random detail, but what the two kinds of trees were given out?
Response
We provided the following information:
The last one was July 2021 (we had a total of four Citizenship Ceremonies last year)
The trees given out today were titoki and kapuka