Policing Bill

I rise to speak to the title and commencement clauses in respect of the Policing Bill. Although we have had a fairly colourful and loud debate in respect of one particular clause, it has to be seen as a great day when policing is brought into the modern era. Yesterday I had the privilege—not the sad duty—to attend the funeral of Constable Dave Armstrong of the New Plymouth police, who died, aged only 56, at his desk while he was working as a scenes of crime officer in the New Plymouth police station last Thursday. The funeral itself and the celebration of policing in New Zealand were incredibly moving, with about 100 officers in an honour guard down the street outside the chapel. One of the officers whom I took up to that funeral was ex - Senior Sergeant Miles from Hāwera, who is a real institution. He started as the senior sergeant in 1972, left in about 1985, and served his country for many years as a police officer in the ranks up to senior sergeant. One of the jobs he attended was the Tangiwai disaster, so that gives an indication of his vintage.

I will repeat a couple of comments I made in respect of this legislation when it was first introduced to Parliament. I made the point that in 1958, when the Police Act we are replacing with this bill was implemented, it was a very different world from the one we live in today. Only a few years after the culmination of the Second World War we lived in a country that was building rapidly in terms of economic growth on the back of wool and meat. We were, as some people called us, the larder of Great Britain. Great Britain was truly great and bought everything that we supplied. If we think back to those times and the way we lived—hugely conservative as a country, hugely supportive of discipline, living in neighbourhoods, with mothers in homes, a tightly restricted supply of alcohol and suchlike, and drugs were virtually unheard of—it was a completely different place from where we are today. The police service then was a completely different organisation from the New Zealand Police today. The only organisation doing policing in the 1950s was the New Zealand Police. Now, of course, a number of organisations right across the country are involved in policing. For example, more security guards are operating in New Zealand than there are sworn police officers. But just to recapture a little bit of history, let me say to members that in 1958 there was one police car in the Taranaki police district and it was a 1955 DeSoto owned by the police—

💬 Hon Annette King: Harry owns it now!

Harry has it; he has dibs on it anyway, I bet. The only person allowed to drive it was the district commander or his driver. But the district commander did not know that on the night shift his officers used to grab the car, disconnect the speedo, and go for a wander around Taranaki to visit the outlying stations. They could hide the number of miles ticking over on the clock but they could not hide the fact that they had used all the gas that a big V8 used. There is no statute of limitations under the Crimes Act so I hope people are gracious, but the officers used to sneak down to Powderham Street, put a siphon hose in the back of a bus, and fill up the police district commander’s car with petrol stolen out of the back of the bus. When I told the officer telling me this that that was theft, he said no, it was just good police work.

It is funny to think back that in those days we lived under a totally different regime. Apparently we saw policemen as 10-foot-tall angels—not Hell’s Angels—who would give people a kick up the bum or a clip around the ear rather than put them before the courts. Courts were interesting places too. People would go to prison at the drop of a hat, for what today would be seen as next to nothing.

But, moving on, I say we have to accept that policing has changed significantly. Virtually every core aspect of policing in New Zealand is done by a private organisation in parallel with the New Zealand Police. To be quite honest—and I think the police accept this themselves—the police would be very hard pressed to provide a similar level of overall policing if there were no private organisations now carrying out police work within our country. We will also see, through the implementation of this legislation, access to biometric information, the ability to take and retain DNA samples, and those other investigative techniques that are able to give juries and decision makers within the court system the ability to make well-honed decisions backed up by good information.

The police are able to work in a fairly fluid way where needs are. They have the ability to authorise certain officers, who may not actually be sworn police, to carry out tasks that at present require a sworn officer to do them. That is a good thing, as long as we bear in mind that the spread of those we get to do these policing duties should not be too broad, and that those who are charged with enforcing the law are those who understand it and have the training and the ability to execute it—and execute it in a safe way not only from the police officer’s point of view but from the point of view of the offender or those who run up against the jurisdiction of our local police.

The legislation builds on changes we have seen over the last 20 years and takes account of the way crime is occurring in our communities and neighbourhoods and the way it is investigated by those charged to do so. The National Party is pleased to support the Policing Bill.

I compliment the Minister on the way she has conducted the review of policing to date, the implementation of the new Policing Bill—the replacement for the Police Act—and the collegial way in which she has approached that, with the input that those of us from across the House have been able to have in respect of that, and also with the input of those within the sector, particularly those private providers that I alluded to earlier. I also congratulate Superintendent Hamish McCardle on the work he did in preparation of the review documents, and on the conduct of the seminar that drew expertise from around the world and around the country to consider the matters before the review, as it was then, prior to the compilation of the Policing Bill as it is now, and the new Policing Act as it will be very shortly. I thank the Minister for the opportunity to have input into that, and I believe that it will be a bit of a hallmark in the way that Governments present and future will conduct themselves in respect of considering legislation that is apolitical, that will endure over time, and that will have such a huge impact on our communities—hopefully, for the better.

Clause 1 agreed to.

Clause 2 not agreed to.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 227 in the name of the Hon Annette King to insert new clause 2 be agreed to.

New clause 2 agreed to.

Bill reported with amendment.

Report adopted.