Collins Judith: Budget Debate 
Collins Judith: Budget Debate 
[Volume:654;Page:4187] 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 We are in the most trying of economic times yet this Government—in particular the Minister of Finance—has pulled a magnificent Budget out of extraordinarily difficult times. If ever we want to be reassured of that we can consider the fact that Standard and Poor’s rating agency improved our credit rating rather than took it down. There is a great deal of talk from the Opposition members who are very very knowledgable now but did not seem to know anything when they were in Government. They wanted to say that the rating would be dropped down but no it went up. For New Zealanders that means lower interest rates and more important for businesses it means access to credit. In a little country like New Zealand in tough economic times the concern is not just about the interest rates we pay; it is actually about being able to access credit. Businesses need credit. A business without credit is a business that is going bust. That is the very best measure out of this Budget—when it comes to keeping people employed it is about keeping businesses going. We hear from Opposition members and of course they do not appreciate any of that. There are so few of them who have had any experience at all in business or who have ever had to mortgage their house to set up their business. Actually I cannot think of even one who has ever put anything on the line economically. I cannot think of any who have really risked it all for the dream of having their own business. No it is not really something that they want to talk about. 
Let me talk about the way that this Government has delivered $900 million extra into the justice area. Let me talk about the 600 extra front-line police officers that this Government is putting on the streets by the end of 2011. In particular let me talk about Counties-Manukau where I live. Yes Mr Assistant-Speaker I must say I am very interested in Counties-Manukau but so should all of New Zealand be. For years—and I will not blame just the previous Government—Counties-Manukau has been under-resourced in terms of policing. For years whenever there has been a major crime—and there have been many over the years—police from all over the country have had to be redeployed into Counties-Manukau. They have had to deal with murder scenes and all sorts of other crimes that have unfortunately hit us in that area and that has stripped police out of other areas where they were needed. This Government listened. During the election campaign we said we would get 300 extra police into Counties-Manukau by the end of next year and we are well on our way. 
To those naysayers who said that it could not be done that there would be problems recruiting and police would not want to go there; I say that I was right and they were wrong. [ 
Interruption 
] I was right. I said we would get them and we are getting them. In fact we now have people pretty much queuing up to come into the New Zealand police force and the attrition rate is now the lowest it has ever been in recorded history. It is now 2 percent. 
Charles Chauvel 
: That’s because there’s no jobs now! 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Yes the economy may have something to do with it. But I will tell Mr Chauvel that the other thing it has to do with is the fact that there is now a Minister of Police and a Government that back the New Zealand Police. Through thick and thin through the hard times and the good times we back the New Zealand Police—and the reason is that the New Zealand Police back us. They help keep us safe in New Zealand and when I say “us” I do not mean the Government; I mean good law-abiding Kiwis. 
Unfortunately the previous Government always felt a bit nervous about the police. That is why it never did the roll-out of the Tasers. That is why unlike this Government it did not give the police the $10 million for the roll-out of Tasers to our front-line officers and boy could they do with it! The previous Government did not roll-out digital radios for the New Zealand police. Oh no the previous Government had to have all sorts of surveys about it. It had to have research programmes and everything else—everything else except digital radios. Members might ask why that is important. It is important because at the moment anybody can trot down to his or her local electronics shop and buy a police scanner. I am reliably informed that a former Minister of Police who happens to be in this House—not on this side of course—actually does that now. He listens to the police scanner. Apparently he is very excited about it all. He knows what the police are doing. People do that and criminals do that. Police go into gang headquarters and what is on the table? Apart from the tinnies and the methamphetamine there are police scanners. That is the sort of issue that the police are dealing with. They are dealing with illegal boy-racers but what are they dealing with as well? They are dealing with scanners. Wherever the police are going these people get to know. That is because the previous Government never dealt with the technology issue. Instead all it wanted to do was bag the police and try to make them its own. The police have the support in this Budget from this Government. 
Another area that has needed a lot of support is the corrections system and in particular parole. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Tell us about family violence! 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Well actually family violence went up 47 percent under that Government. So if I were Mrs Chadwick I would keep quiet about it. 
We have $385.4 million over the next 4 years to ensure that there are enough prison beds to cope with the rising prison population. All the mechanisms for that rising prison population such as a lack of rehabilitation were put in place under the previous Labour Government. What happened to rehabilitation under Labour? Well not a lot. We have massive recidivism rates particularly amongst Maori prisoners and that is a shocking example of what the previous Labour Government did to Maori. Instead this Government is doubling the number of rehabilitation places available. I hope that the other party over there will support that part of the Budget because otherwise it will be voting against rehabilitation for prisoners. There is also $24 million in capital funding allocated for the design and planning of extra prison capacity in the upper North Island. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Double-bunking! 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: No no a new prison I say to Mrs Chadwick in the upper North Island. To deal with the immediate need that we have been left with by a very slack former corrections Minister Phil Goff we have to put $218.6 million in the operating fund and $145.8 million capital funding to have double-bunking. Otherwise we will have to do what the Labour Government did which was to stick people in prison vans and drive round and round Mount Eden while waiting for a bed. That is the best Labour could do. 
Hon Member 
: Build universities not prisons! 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: And when Labour did build new prisons what did it do? It spent $600000 per bed at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility. It may as well have bought prisoners two houses each; that would be the same price. 
For years the probation service has been put upon by the previous Government. The service has had to deal with increased numbers in the community and it has been crying out for extra funding. We are injecting an extra $255.9 million into the probation service to address issues raised in the critical report by the Auditor-General. This is a report that the previous Government should have known about because the report was happening under its watch. Yet it did so little. It put in about an extra 80 probation officers but it needed an awful lot more than that. 
We have seen from this Government a commitment to law and order—a safer New Zealand. We have seen a commitment to supporting our Department of Corrections officers a commitment to supporting our parole officers a commitment to supporting our probation officers and a commitment to our New Zealand Police. That is because this Government is not politically correct. It is not afraid to say that some things are right and some things are wrong. This Government will not be building luxurious holiday homes for prisoners. I tell members to wait until they see what I have to unveil on this matter. I expect howls of abuse from Opposition members because from their point of view all they want to do is house people in lovely holiday homes so they can all feel good when they go and visit. There will not be any police scanners either for criminals.