Mark Ron: General Debates 
Mark Ron: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7665] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I will start by saying that if there exists today a reason for this Government to pause and rethink its deployment priorities with regard to security risks that face New Zealand its friends and its allies it has to be page 1 of the  
New Zealand Herald  
today. If there exists and if this Government needs anything more than the briefing papers it has already received from senior defence officials as to the appalling state of the staffing and the problems created by overreach and overstretch then I think possibly the front page of the  
New Zealand Herald  
might help persuade it that we do have some problems in our defence force that need to be considered and not dismissed as they have been. I ask the Government to rethink its priorities in its deployments the size of our defence force and its initiatives to encourage people to rejoin our defence force and help us meet our security needs. 
I want to talk now about an appalling state of affairs that exists internally in terms of security for private citizens. Have members heard this statement before? “It is a sad day for New Zealand when the police lack the resources to catch a burglar who has knocked off the same six houses in a fortnight.” So said George Hawkins in January 1997. “I am well aware that the police are overworked and understaffed and as of 1 December 1996 the Waitakere police were operating with 13.5 fewer police than they were entitled to.” It is interesting is it not because today nothing really has changed. “A fiend is given a ‘Get out of jail free’ card’ ”—Mr Hawkins once again complaining in April 1997 about offenders getting away scot-free because police neither have the time nor the resources to apprehend them. 
What has changed since that man became the Minister? What has changed since he was making these press releases about the safety and the policing in our streets given that he has had 4 years in the job a big limousine a ministerial house and all the trappings of power? What has changed? Nothing has changed. This is worse than the “Maharey principle” which is saying things during an election that are not said when in Government. This is about things that were said in 9 years of Opposition that were going to be corrected and dealt with and nothing has changed. I had to laugh—but it is quite sad really—when I got a fax from a person in the Minister’s own electorate that stated: “Could you please today in Parliament congratulate the Labour Party in particular George Hawkins our esteemed police Minister for completely failing to provide a safe and secure country to bring up a family and operate a business.” That was from one of his constituents. I sought leave of the House today to table this fax and the Labour Party denied it. 
This man has gone on to describe how for the second time in 3 years a pharmacy has been ram raided only metres down the road from George Hawkins’ own electorate office. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Ramrodded or railroaded. 
RON MARK 
: Ram raided. The question people are asking is that if the man cannot provide security to a pharmaceutical business in his own patch then how the heck can he hope to provide security for other people around New Zealand? Then we read an article in his electorate Manurewa—printed 8 July—that thieves had been busy in Manurewa. Between 23 June and 29 June a whopping 51 burglaries were reported. That is 51 burglaries in 6 days. The real ripper is that we have already had information provided to the Government and presented to a select committee that shows clearly that about one-third of actual crimes are being reported. 
 This is reported crime. Therefore there is no motivation for all those low-income families and people who cannot afford to have household and contents insurance and who have no hope at all of getting any compensation to report those crimes to the police. They know what the police will do. The police will turn up 24 hours or 17 hours or 7 hours later and simply issue them a little ticket that enables them to go and make an insurance claim because both they and the police officers concerned know that these guys will never be caught.