BREAKING: Police Provide Update On Investigation Into MAFS

At the start of March, NSW Police announce they were investigating Paul's act of domestic violence and requested all raw footage from producers. Seven weeks have passed since then, and today the police provided me with an update. 

If you're affected by domestic violence and need help or someone to talk to, phone 1800RESPECT.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome back to the Maths to New podcast
with me Joshua Fox, and today I have some breaking
news for you guys. As we all know, this year's
season took a bit of a doc turn at the
start of March when Paul admitted to punching a wall
during an argument with wife Carina. This act of domestic
violence didn't then just you know, upset and trigger many viewers,
but it also angered them at how producers just then

(00:21):
allowed him to remain on the show when they had
such a great opportunity to maybe make an example to
Australia and say, hey, you know, this behavior is not accepted.
And during that whole discussion that obviously started about you know,
should he have been able to stay or should he
have been immediately removed? New South Wales Police then announced
that they had commenced an investigation into the incident and

(00:44):
wouldn't be making any further comment in relation to the
matter as the investigation is current. Well that was six
weeks ago now, and whereas the rest of the media
seem to have all kind of lost interest in this story,
I've been wondering, well, what came of that investigation? What
did the police do if anything, And I spent the
weekend then investigating their investigation and I have the answers.

(01:10):
I can reveal that at the start of March, Karina
did go down to a police station in Sydney to
discuss the incident with officers there, but she did not
wish to make a formal statement or complaint. That same day,
after Karna had left, and then told that the police
phone Paul, who was in Perth, to discuss the incident
from his side. I'm told that they asked him, you know,
about that night, if he had a history of things

(01:31):
like this, and they also asked him like if him
doing that was him attempting to intimidate Karna on more
just an unexpected aggressive outburst. And I can also reveal that,
as well as speaking to both Paul and Karna, the
police did review footage that was supplied to them by
production company Animal Show in Australia from not just that
time of the experiment, but the whole experiment. And you know,

(01:54):
I'm talking footage that wasn't edited, It wasn't what we
seen on TV. It was just a raw footage from
the cameras which would maybe give them a accurate impression
of Paul's character as a whole from his time on
the show, and then after doing those things, the police
basically decided it was not a police matter. And this
morning I reached out to New South Wales Police media

(02:15):
just to confirm this and seeing if they'd give me
a statement, and this is what they just replied with.
Following an investigation conducted by officers attached to South Sydney
Police Area Command, no further police action is expected. And
you know what, I kind of knew this was always
going to be the outcome of this because none of
the people actually involved in the incident ever reported it
to the police. Like, remember, five months had actually passed

(02:38):
between Paul punching that door and then the police announcing
they were now investigating it. And if you're wondering why
did they do this, then I'm told by several sources
that as it all unfolded on TV and the public
was reacting to it, different journalists and media outlets kept
emailing police media asking are they going to comment? Are
they doing anything about it? And then there was a
couple of complaints from the public, which basically both put

(03:01):
pressure on the police to almost be like, well, we've
got to do something and show we're taking this seriously
because of these external factors. So they did launch their investigation,
and I kind of assume this from the start because
in their only statement at the start of March, when
they announced they were doing this, the police started that
statement by saying this the matter has been referred to
officers from South Sydney Police Area Command. And usually a

(03:25):
statement from police might start with something like an incident
had been reported or someone had been charged, but them
starting it with referred to again just means people with
no direct involvement were like, yo, are you going to
do anything about this? And having worked in the media
and for newspapers and stuff before, I know that would
have just been led by journalists who all wanted to

(03:46):
just keep the story going, you know, for their clicks
and add revenue and whatever. And personally, I do feel
a little conflicted about that because on one hand, it's like, well,
great journalists doing that and pushing the police to do
that little investigation kind of made it clear to Australia
that hey, they do actually take domestic violence seriously. And
all those articles that went viral at the start of match,

(04:06):
you know, like Paul under investigation for domestic violence. Please
investigate in maths, Please pro Paul. You know, all those stories,
hopefully they reinforce that message to domestic violence victims that hey,
help is out there and the police will step in
if they're aware. So, you know, maybe that made people
want to seek help if they are sadly in that situation,

(04:29):
and maybe even to any perpetrators of domestic violence, it
made them think like fuck, like my actions can have
serious consequences here. But then, on the other hand, I
do know how media companies kind of rarely care about
these things, and they're driven not necessarily by the idea
of change or helping society or educating people, are raising awareness, whatever,
but often by what will get them the most clicks

(04:49):
at a certain time, and they'll do anything to keep
that story going. Then once that story stops getting clicks,
they move on, which is why I assume none of
those journals who initially put the police to start this
investigation have done the follow up I've just done here now.
But yeah, that's that's it. That's the breaking news for
those who have been asking what came of the investigation.

(05:11):
There you go away from that, though, as far as
I'm aware, the New South Wales fair Work investigation is
still ongoing, you know, into the complaints from cast members
about working rights and what they went through during filming.
I don't have an update on that. I will let
you know when I do, I'll do a bit more digging.
But yeah, that's that's on the police investigation. It's done,

(05:31):
it's concluded.