Mark Mitchell (New Zealand politician)

Mark Patrick Mitchell (born 22 May 1968) is a New Zealand politician, former police officer and security contractor, and a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives since 2011. He is a member of the National Party.

Early life and career
Mitchell was born on Auckland's North Shore and lived his early years at Whenuapai air base, where his father was a flight lieutenant flying Orion aircraft and his mother's father, Air Commodore Frank Gill, was the base commander. Gill was later a National Party cabinet minister, between 1975 and 1980. Mitchell attended Rosmini College, a Catholic school.

He was in the New Zealand Police for thirteen years from 1989 to 2002, including time as a dog handler and in the Armed Offenders Squad. After leaving the police, Mitchell undertook an executive education short course at Wharton Business School.

Mitchell went to Iraq in 2003 to work for British kidnap and ransom risk-management company Control Risks, providing security to officials of the Coalition Provisional Authority government. He and his men were besieged in the Italian-run An Nasiriyah compound in southern Iraq by the Mahdi militia for five days in 2004. He spent a period training Iraqi security forces in 2004, before leaving Iraq. He has refused to confirm whether he killed anyone in conflict, instead saying there were "casualties on both sides".

He then spent six years based in Kuwait. He went to work for Kuwait firm Agility Logistics, which was supplying food to military forces in Iraq. The company set up subsidiary Threat Management Group, with Mitchell as CEO and shareholder, to improve security for its logistics staff. The company took on contracts protecting infrastructure and Mitchell dealt with kidnap and ransom negotiations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Darfur. He sold Threat Management Group in 2010, when it had an annual turnover of $130 million, and the sale made him wealthy.

In Government, 2011–2017
When National MP for Rodney and Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Lockwood Smith decided to contest the 2011 New Zealand general election as a list only candidate, Mitchell was a candidate to replace him in Rodney and officially won the National Party pre-selection contest for the seat on 26 April 2011. Mitchell won the seat with over 53% of the vote, defeating his nearest rival, Conservative Party founder and leader Colin Craig by over 12,000 votes.

Mitchell voted against the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry in New Zealand.

In 2014, Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics presented evidence that suggested that Mitchell had hired political strategist Simon Lusk during the National Party selection process for the Rodney electorate. Lusk appeared to have collaborated with blogger Cameron Slater to discredit Mitchell's opponents, particularly Brent Robinson. Mitchell strongly denies ever paying Lusk or Slater.

He served as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee from the 2014 general election. When John Key resigned as Prime Minister and Bill English replaced him in 2016, Mitchell was appointed as Minister for Land Information and Minister of Statistics outside of cabinet by the new Prime Minister. When English reshuffled his cabinet in 2017, Mitchell was considered one of the "big winners" in the reshuffle, being promoted into cabinet and being made Minister of Defence, replacing Gerry Brownlee who was moved into the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the reshuffle Mitchell kept the Land Information portfolio while being replaced in the Statistics portfolio by Scott Simpson.

In opposition, 2017–2023
During the 2017 general election, Mark Mitchell was re-elected in the Rodney electorate, defeating Labour candidate Marja Lubeck by a margin of 19,561 votes. Following the formation of a Labour-led coalition government, Mitchell was appointed as National's Spokesperson for the defence, disarmament, and justice portfolios. On 22 January 2019, he was designated as National's Spokesperson for Pike River Re-entry.

On 10 June 2019, Mitchell voiced concerns about the Labour-led coalition government's plan to withdraw New Zealand's non-combat training mission from Iraq by June 2020, stating it was too soon. The following day, Mitchell supported the Government's NZ$20 billion Defence Capability Plan to boost the New Zealand Defence Force's equipment and manpower but disagreed with the Government's decision to bypass the tender process for new Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft.

Following the resignation of short-lived National party leader Todd Muller on 14 July 2020, Mitchell ran against fellow MP Judith Collins for the position of Leader of the National Party. Ultimately, he lost the election for the position as he was not able to get the required 29 members of the National caucus to back him despite backing from former National leader Simon Bridges.

During the 2020 general election, Mitchell won the seat of Whangaparāoa (which had replaced his previous electorate of Rodney) by a final margin of 7,823 votes. Following the election, Mitchell ruled out challenging party leader Collins in the wake of National's landslide defeat.

In August 2021 the New Zealand Herald reported that Mitchell was understood to be firming up a bid for Mayor of Auckland in 2022. In October 2021, however, he announced that he had decided not to stand.

In November 2022 Mitchell, as National's police spokesperson, defended his party's proposed boot camps (known as Youth Offender Military Academies) for youth offenders. Mitchell argued that the boot camps would turn young people's lives around and make New Zealand's streets safe. He also disputed Justice Minister Kiri Allan and former Chief Science Adviser Sir Peter Gluckman's criticism of the effectiveness of boot camps while defending the effectiveness of the previous National Government's "military activity camps." In August 2023, Mitchell said that these military academies would be modelled after the New Zealand Defence Force's six-week Limited Service Volunteer programme. Youth offenders would take courses in numeracy, team-building, literacy and physical activities. He said that the Academies would last for one year and would be based at several military bases including Trentham Military Camp in Upper Hutt, Whenuapai's RNZAF Base Auckland, and Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch.

In late September 2023 Mitchell was confronted by members of "They're Our Whānau," who submitted a 5,000-strong petition opposing National and ACT's anti-gang policies. The group's spokesperson Matilda Kahotea claimed that National's anti-gang rhetoric was attacking Māori people. Mitchell rejected the petition, describing gangs as "organised criminal groups responsible for violence and peddling meth". Mitchell offered to help any gang members leave their gangs. Kahotea and fellow delegate Taniora Tamihana accused Mitchell of "arrogant" and "intimidating" conduct. When members of the group denied they were connected with gangs, Mitchell responded that they were part of a "gang hikoi" opposing his party's policies towards gangs. Unable to convince Mitchell, the group began chanting "They're not listening, they're our whānau," prompting Mitchel to leave. Following the confrontation, the National Party issued a statement promising several tough, new anti-gang laws including a ban on gang patches and insignia being worn in public, police being empowered to disperse large gang gatherings, and new police powers to search gang members' homes and vehicles without a warrant.

In Government, 2023–present
During the 2023 New Zealand general election, Mitchell was re-elected in Whangaparāoa by a margin of 23,376, defeating Labour's candidate Estefania Muller Pallarès.

Following the formation of the National-led coalition government in late November 2023, Mitchell was appointed as Minister of Corrections, Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery, and Minister of Police.

On 8 December 2023 Mitchell as Police Minister met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out the Government's expectations for Police and combating gangs. Coster agreed to the Minister's expectations.

On 21 February 2024, Mitchell participated in a Newstalk ZB interview with Labour MP Ginny Andersen that was hosted by Mike Hosking. When Mitchell talked about his work as a private security contractor in Iraq in 2004, Andersen asked if he had been "paid to kill people" in his previous career. In response, Mitchell accused Andersen and the left of engaging in character assassination. Andersen then asked Mitchell if he kept a tally on the number of people he shot and alleged that Mitchell's former employer British security company Control Risks made $4 million a year. Mitchell condemned her remarks as outrageous and demanded an apology. Though Andersen initially defended her remarks on free speech grounds, she apologised after Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins expressed disapproval of her comments. Mitchell questioned the sincerity of Andersen's apology and turned his attention to expressing condolences for the recent death of late Green MP Efeso Collins, which occurred that same day.

On 25 February 2024, Mitchell and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced that the Government would introduce legislation to ban gang insignia in public places, enable Police to disperse gang gatherings, allow Courts to ban gang members from communicating for at least three years, and giving greater weight to gang membership during sentencing. Mitchell also confirmed the ban on gang insignia would apply to funerals and tangi. During the press conference, Mitchell said "For too long gangs have been allowed to behave as if they are above the law. There is no tolerance for this behaviour and these new laws will support Police to take action against it."

On 6 May 2024, Mitchell and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced that the Government would allocate NZ$1.9 billion from the upcoming 2024 New Zealand budget to training 470 new corrections officers and adding 810 beds to Waikeria Prison.

In early June 2024, Mitchell in his capacity as Corrections Minister sought cabinet approval to scrap several Treaty of Waitangi provisions from the proposed Corrections Amendment Bill, which would have compelled the Department of Corrections to improve Māori outcomes in the prison system. Key provisions included equitable rehabilitation and reintegration outcomes for Māori, giving Māori prisoners access to cultural activities and consulting with whānau (family), hapū (sub-groups) and iwi on decisions made about prisoners. This legislation had been introduced by the previous Labour Government, with Māori and iwi experts being involved in the development of the provisions. Green Party justice spokesperson Tamatha Paul defended the provisions and criticised the high Māori incarceration rate as a violation of the Treaty. In response, Mitchell stated that a review of Treaty principles in legislation was part of the Government's coalition agreement and argued that it did not affect Corrections' engagement with Māori families and hapū.

On 7 June, Mitchell confirmed that the Government would halt funding for the Mongrel Mob's controversial drug rehabilitation programme Kahukura, which had been supported by the previous Labour Government. As a senior cabinet minister, Mitchell represented New Zealand at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine at Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland on 15–16 June 2024.

Personal life
Mitchell has two biological children and three step-children. In 2011, he married Peggy Bourne, the widow of rally driver Possum Bourne. They separated and as of 2021, Mitchell is in a new relationship.