For anyone still labouring under the impression that New Zealand is an innocent little place like it was 50 years ago, those prison busts should absolutely shatter that delusion.

What happened was the single biggest bust in our prison system: 20 people arrested and charged across three different prisons - Mount Eden, Spring Hill and Auckland South. 

They have been charged with allegedly smuggling meth and phones into prison in exchange for cash payments.

There are bribery charges and there are allegations that prisoners were organising drug importation and transactions while still in jail.

It is not just Corrections guards either, it is also senior officers. That is actually more worrying because it tells you this is not about junior staff just recruited who were not properly vetted. These are people who have been there for a while.

These are people on decent money - the kind of money you would not necessarily expect to be corruptible. That is what a network looks like right there.

And it is not just in our prisons, by the way, that this sort of thing is happening. 

We have just had a police officer busted for leaking intelligence to her Killer Beez boyfriend this year. We have had people busted at ports, baggage handlers caught at airports - and this is exactly what we have been warned about by the crime advisory group working with the Government, which produced a series of reports last year.

They warned that corruption is rising and that insider threats - where trusted people are corrupted - are a rapidly growing problem.

And it is growing rapidly. Think about this - it was 2011 when we had our first corrections officer in this country jailed for corruption. Fifteen years later, we have allegedly uncovered an entire network.

And it is the gangs. It is the fact that we have more sophisticated gangs coming in from Australia. It is the high price of drugs here, which makes New Zealand a more lucrative place to do business. It is the relatively low wages we pay our prison guards, police officers and baggage handlers.

If you still think we do not have a corruption problem, just look at what happened. Twenty people are not just a few bad apples - they are a sign that we are now like the rest of the world and we have a corruption problem.

LISTEN ABOVE

For anyone still labouring under the impression that New Zealand is an innocent little place like it was 50 years ago, those prison busts should absolutely shatter that delusion.
What happened was the single biggest bust in our prison system: 20 people arrested and charged across three different prisons - Mount Eden, Spring Hill and Auckland South.&nbsp;
They have been charged with allegedly smuggling meth and phones into prison in exchange for cash payments.
There are bribery charges and there are allegations that prisoners were organising drug importation and transactions while still in jail.
It is not just Corrections guards either, it is also senior officers. That is actually more worrying because it tells you this is not about junior staff just recruited who were not properly vetted. These are people who have been there for a while.
These are people on decent money - the kind of money you would not necessarily expect to be corruptible. That is what a network looks like right there.
And it is not just in our prisons, by the way, that this sort of thing is happening.&nbsp;
We have just had a police officer busted for leaking intelligence to her Killer Beez boyfriend this year. We have had people busted at ports, baggage handlers caught at airports - and this is exactly what we have been warned about by the crime advisory group working with the Government, which produced a series of reports last year.
They warned that corruption is rising and that insider threats - where trusted people are corrupted - are a rapidly growing problem.
And it is growing rapidly. Think about this - it was 2011 when we had our first corrections officer in this country jailed for corruption. Fifteen years later, we have allegedly uncovered an entire network.
And it is the gangs. It is the fact that we have more sophisticated gangs coming in from Australia. It is the high price of drugs here, which makes New Zealand a more lucrative place to do business. It is the relatively low wages we pay our prison guards, police officers and baggage handlers.
If you still think we do not have a corruption problem, just look at what happened. Twenty people are not just a few bad apples - they are a sign that we are now like the rest of the world and we have a corruption problem.
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: New Zealand's corruption problem is growing rapidly

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/16320196-fd6d-42f1-bb74-b451007c2482/transcript