Estimates Debate — Vote Police

Thank you for the opportunity, first off, to thank the Law and Order Committee for its courtesy and attendance on the day of the hearing for police. I also take the opportunity to thank the New Zealand Police, both sworn and employee staff, for all of the work they have done over the last year, and that they will do in the next year. I thank them very much for the fact that every day they put their lives on the line for the rest of us, and that every day they take options that many other people would choose not to have to take. I acknowledge very much that they do not have the luxury of being able to stand by and let something happen that might be a crime or somebody being injured; they have to get in and do the right thing. I thank them for it, and I am sure that everybody in this Chamber would join me in that, as well.

The police are rolling out nationwide the Policing Excellence programme, which is focusing very much on crime prevention and neighbourhood policing. It is really important that we make use of these highly trained professionals in the New Zealand Police to, wherever possible, prevent crime rather than be only reactive to it. Of course, we do want them to catch the criminals as well after the event, but best of all, if we can prevent crime, that is really what we are after. We now have more than 300 extra police in the Counties-Manukau Police District, we have another 100 extra police around the rest of the country, and another 200 are to be out on the beat by the end of this year. So that will be fulfilling an election promise of 600 more police across the country by the end of this year. With my colleagues, we have been able to pass laws to give the police greater powers, particularly around gang assets, and to place the onus on offenders to prove where they got their ill-gotten gains. This has been a huge boost to the police, particularly to their morale and confidence, and we have seen them take to the legislation with great vigour. We have also seen great work, between the police and the Customs Service in particular, in relation to methamphetamine busts, and we have seen a lot of that end up with some offenders being in prison for quite a long time—as they should be.

We have also seen—despite all the naysayers when we said we would put extra police out on the streets—an actual reduction in crime. In the last calendar year we have seen a reduction in crime of about 6.7 percent across the country. In some parts of New Zealand we have seen some quite spectacular reductions in crime, and every district in the country has had a reduction when it comes to a per capita basis, although some are much smaller than others. I believe that that is a fantastic result, particularly when so many people have said “Well, there’s been a tough time in the economy. There’s been a recession. Won’t crime go up?” I have always said that it should not, because people do not commit crimes in this country because they do not have money; they commit crimes because they are criminals. It has nothing to do with someone’s poverty status, and if anyone disputes that they should just have a look at some of those failed finance companies, and at some of the things that were going on there. That was not about poverty; that was about greed—and it always is. But we have seen, too, the police working much better with their communities, and that is where the neighbourhood policing teams, which I talked about today in the House in question time, are really coming into their own. We have had six teams in Counties-Manukau, which has made a huge difference, and teams are being rolled out around the country. They will not be in every community; they will be in the target communities with the greatest needs. I think that that is smart policing. We are seeing some really great confidence in the police.

I will also take the opportunity to welcome the new Commissioner of Police, Peter Marshall, who came on board on 3 April this year, and also Deputy Commissioner of Police Mike Bush. They have joined Deputy Commissioner of Police Viv Rickard. They are a really great team who are putting their troops first, who are expecting their troops to really come forward and think about what they are doing, and who are expecting to get the very best out of them. They are also people who will stand up for their troops, and I think that that is important. One of the things that we as a Parliament can do is to support the police in what they do. I think that many of us who talk to the victims of crime, and who understand what it is like to be on the receiving end of burglaries, of car thefts, or of assaults, understand what it is like for people who are victims of crime. I believe that the police’s new focus on victims will pay dividends, as well.

I have a lot of comments coming into my office about the New Zealand Police, and the vast majority of them are fantastic. I am very proud of the police, and I congratulate them on what they are about to do for the next year.

It is a very great pleasure to take a call on the appropriations for Vote Police. In 2008 I was campaigning in the vibrant and diverse area of Manurewa, and it was very clear to me, in a space of a few minutes, that some people living in that community were living in a state of insecurity. I could tell that by the fact they had three locks on the door, and on the screen door in front of that there were another couple of locks.

This Government has listened. We believe that the fundamental duty we owe as a Government to our people is to allow them to live in a state of safety. Our thrust is making our community safe, and I congratulate the Minister on doing it so ably. It has certainly worked in Manurewa-Manukau, where I have the privilege of being based and of having my office. We have seen a national reduction in crime, as the Minister has alluded to, but in Counties-Manukau it is even greater. It is over 10 percent. There is an over-10-percent reduction in crime, in an area where at the time when I was walking the streets, knocking on doors, and campaigning, sadly and tragically five people lost their lives through crime. Fortuitously, fortunately, and because of the good work that has been done, that is no longer the case.

We are addressing the drivers of crime with a range of cross-agency initiatives addressing behavioural issues in young people, providing educational pathways from school into work, and looking to do work on reducing alcohol-related crime, which has certainly been a problem across our country. But we also have to give credit for the excellent work that the police are doing, and they are doing it knowing they have the full support of this Government. That is something that has come out to me time and time again. We have a very close relationship with the police in Manurewa. I see them on a regular basis, and they tell me that they feel 100 percent supported by the Minister of Police and by this Government.

What are some of the things that we have been doing and the police have been doing? I want to add to the Minister’s congratulations to Peter Marshall. Peter Marshall did a wonderful job as leader of RAMSI, the Regional Assistance Mission Solomon Islands. The leader of the Solomon Islands told me, when I was up there visiting as part of the Pacific Mission, that they would not have had an election without bloodshed had it not been for the good work of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands and Peter Marshall’s leadership.

We are very, very fortunate to have Deputy Commissioner of Police Mike Bush at Police National Headquarters now, because Mike has done some superb work in the Counties-Manukau area. A lot of his work, of course, will be rolled out nationally.

I took the opportunity to go out in an incident car quite recently. I was impressed by the professionalism, the empathy, and the effectiveness of the team. The police have a flexible rostering system. They are working more smartly. They have a flexible rostering system so that they can deploy more police at times when there is greater demand. Of course I chose a Friday night, which is regarded as quite a good time to be out, and sure enough I saw the police doing a wonderful job.

One of the first things I saw the police do was deploy that wonderful new tool, which has been deployed over 4,100 times, the police safety order. We were called to a domestic residence. There was a gentleman in a stuporous sleep in a car on the front lawn. There was a concerned wife and child inside, and some family members. I was very impressed with the professional way that the constables dealt with the issue. They issued a police safety order so that the gentleman was taken away. At a stroke the family was protected from any possible intimidation, violence, or harassment, and that will last for the length of time the police wrote on the police safety order. It ensures safety for that period of time, which will allow time for things to calm down. That action will not result in a conviction, but the police safety order is a very clever and elegant tool to address a situation that could have been fraught and dangerous at the time.

The other thing I would like to tease out a little bit is the neighbourhood policing teams. I concur with the Minister of Police that it is a superb intervention, and we have benefited hugely in Manurewa and Manukau from the deployment of six teams. There are another six teams coming, so we will have 12 teams in total, as well as the 18 further teams rolled out across the country, so that is 30 teams in all. I went out with one in my community.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Serious Fraud agreed to.

Vote Veterans’ Affairs—Defence Force agreed to.

Vote Veterans’ Affairs—Social Development agreed to.

Vote Education