Police Minister Judith Collins has revealed that threats against Prime Minister John Key have led to one person being arrested and charged in the past few weeks.
Commenting on issues of the prime minister’s security is against protocol, but Ms. Collins was explaining the $800,000 increase in the Diplomatic Protection Squad (DPS) budget for 2009-2010, reported stuff.co.nz.
“They don’t actually ask the prime minister, they don’t ask me, they do it themselves, as they have to be allowed to get on with their job,” she said.
Speaking on Radio Sport, John Key said that the fact that people had been arrested for making threats to kill him was public knowledge.
“If I walk to the dairy, someone comes with me. Do people seriously think at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon if I want to walk down and buy the newspaper or a litre of milk, that I really want to have a diplomatic protection agent? The answer’s obviously no,” he was reported by www.stuff.co.nz as saying.
Stuff also reported that about $30,000 of the budget was spent on sending the DPS to Hawaii during Mr. Key’s holiday in 2009.
Ms. Collins told Radio New Zealand that at different times there had been threats to other ministers, Members of Parliament and foreign dignitaries.
“We can’t have a situation where we have people’s lives put at risk because the police are worried that they’re going to end up having to defend their budget ... ,” she told Morning Report.
Commenting on issues of the prime minister’s security is against protocol, but Ms. Collins was explaining the $800,000 increase in the Diplomatic Protection Squad (DPS) budget for 2009-2010, reported stuff.co.nz.
“They don’t actually ask the prime minister, they don’t ask me, they do it themselves, as they have to be allowed to get on with their job,” she said.
Speaking on Radio Sport, John Key said that the fact that people had been arrested for making threats to kill him was public knowledge.
“If I walk to the dairy, someone comes with me. Do people seriously think at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon if I want to walk down and buy the newspaper or a litre of milk, that I really want to have a diplomatic protection agent? The answer’s obviously no,” he was reported by www.stuff.co.nz as saying.
Stuff also reported that about $30,000 of the budget was spent on sending the DPS to Hawaii during Mr. Key’s holiday in 2009.
Ms. Collins told Radio New Zealand that at different times there had been threats to other ministers, Members of Parliament and foreign dignitaries.
“We can’t have a situation where we have people’s lives put at risk because the police are worried that they’re going to end up having to defend their budget ... ,” she told Morning Report.
Friends Read Free