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Summarised by Centrist
Green MP Tamatha Paul has expressed “regret” over her misleading claim in a TikTok video that the “vast majority” of prisoners in NZ are there for non-violent offences, committed in response to poverty.
Paul said prisoners were being punished for being “disabled, poor, Māori.”
In reality, Corrections data shows that violent crimes dominate prison populations.
As of December 2024, 20.7% of inmates were convicted of sexual assault, 20.5% for violent offences, and 10.6% for burglary. Homicide accounted for 8.4%. Non-violent crimes like theft made up just 4.9%.
Paul previously spread a false claim about the government’s military-style boot camps, suggesting a participant had died while in the programme. She later admitted the individual died in a car accident unrelated to the initiative.
Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell called Paul’s false assertions about the reasons for prisoners’ incarceration “total nonsense” and an “insult” to victims.
Paul stated her wording had “over-emphasised” the point, but not before her misinformation had racked up tens of thousands of views on the social media platform. Paul made the video as a PSA to argue that to compare school lunches to prison food was unfair.
Paul claimed she has “spent the past year” visiting prisons, “and going into their kitchen and seeing what they eat, which is far worse quality than anyone would eat.”
