Korako NukNUK KORAKO (National): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. If I could respond to the Hon Phil Goff who has just resumed his seat: Don't worry. We're"—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Sorry but there are two relatively senior members having a go back and forth when someone else has the floor. Just let him get started.NUK KORAKO: Kia ora.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Starting again—Nuk Korako.NUK KORAKO: E Te Mana Whakawā kia ora. I wanted to say to the member who has just resumed his seat: "Don't worry because they are already there. The National Government is there. It has got a comprehensive plan as well to address a lot of the things that you have been talking about." My general debate speech today is about following on from the Minister of Police. It is about law and order and it is about policing. I think the important thing is that as a list member based in the Port Hills one of the many things I do is travel around and particularly go on ride-alongs with the police with community patrols and all of that. I have taken a very very keen interest in policing particularly in Christchurch pre-earthquake and post-earthquake. But one thing that I think is interesting is that it is really great to be part of a Government that is operating within a 21st century environment. That is exactly what we are doing here with policing. Our 21st century policing is about technology and innovation. In doing that we have a more efficient and a more effective police force. I acknowledge and commend all of those men and women who go out there every day 24 hours a day and do the job that is one of the most difficult in this country. One thing though is the incredible strides we have taken that have enabled our front-line police officers particularly as I said before when talking about technology. When we look at this it has got to be underpinned by something. One of the great things with this Government is that we have contributed almost $300 million in police investment. I think the important thing there is that there has been a massive increase in innovation and technology. To meet the challenges there are a couple of interesting things that have been introduced. We have got to keep pace with the criminal world because they are also there using that modern technology as well. But there are two things—encryption of communications particularly police radios. The other one is that there has been the introduction of almost 9000 smartphones and tablets. When we look at that if we equate that those gains from using technology have increased policing hours by the equivalent of around about 350 police officers. In terms of the increase in front-line officers also—since 2009 there have been over 600 new police officers sworn which equates to over 9000 sworn officers within the police force. Looking at the technological advances—and as I said there are new risks because of the sophisticated communications available to modern criminals but our police really are meeting the challenges. There is one other thing particularly when we are talking about technology because 21st century policing is not about just technology in a lot of ways. It is more about also maintaining the Peelian principles and actually looking back at the basis of how our police force started. What that means is that we have developed something that really defines our police force and it is about ethical policing as well. In saying that the principle summed up in that idea is called policing by consent and when we look at that that means the police have a police force of citizens in uniform policing with the consent of the general public. What I am talking about here is that it is actually about working in partnership with communities to reduce crime. One of the big things is about prevention first—that is a huge part of 21st century policing—and the other part is understanding and responding to the drivers of crime. Instead of being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff we are there trying to be a preventer—as opposed to being there and doing the after-the-fact thing. There is another part of this that we see and it is a perceived problem—particularly from the Opposition—and the police call it deploying to beat demand. That is about "Why are these police stations not manned 24 hours a day?". Kia ora."