Faafoi KrisKRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Unfortunately women and men in the police force are not immune like other public-facing public servants in our country in having to do more with less. We have just heard a 5-minute speech from the Government member Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi about apparent good news for the justice sector and for our police but it is apparent to anyone who can do basic maths that this Government has underfunded the police for the entire time it has been in Government.I think it is fair that you should do a little bit more work in this so I went and asked the Minister of Police about the number of police in my area the Kāpiti-Mana area—the district that takes in Porirua and most of the Kāpiti Coast—as to how many sworn police officers were serving that area when the Government took office and how many sworn police officers are servicing that area now. Back in 2008 when the Government came into power 146 police officers were serving the Kāpiti-Mana area. If the Government was true to its word on investing in law and order and talking tough on criminals you would think that maybe more police officers would be serving in the area now. I assumed that maybe that might be the case but when the Minister's own figures came back to me via written questions via this Parliament the number had reduced from 146 in 2008 to just a little over 100 currently. So my community of Mana has been stiffed of nearly 40 police officers over the last 9 years.But that is not what I am hearing from the Government. I want to make sense of the rhetoric coming from the Government and the reality that is actually happening on the front line because there are two losers here: the public and the police. If you have fewer officers servicing that same-sized area with an increase in population over time they have to do more with less. And that is what we have been saying for some time.When you look at some of the crime statistics nationally and locally you have to wonder how much we are stretching those officers on the front line. I did look and I did ask the Minister about crime statistics locally. Victimisations between 2016 and 2017 have gone up 6 percent in that area—up 6 percent in an area where we have roughly 40 fewer police officers. Burglaries in that time have gone up 22 percent between 2016 and 2017 in a community where we have 40 fewer police officers.So I want to make some sense during this debate—when the Government is saying that it has poured more and is pouring more into Police in this Budget why does that not marry up with the reality? Because if it has over the last 9 years then I think the basic maths is that I should have more police on the front line in my area. But the Minister's own responses say that I have 40 fewer. Someone on that side of the House should stand up and tell me how that maths works but I do not think they will. How does that maths work when you say that you are funding police and giving them more money yet the people in my area have to have 40 fewer police officers and crimes like burglaries and victimisations are actually going up?The other loser is the public because this Government is saying one thing about how they are safer but they are not. If burglaries are going up they are not safer. If victimisations are going up they are not safer. And if we have got fewer police tending to those kinds of issues in our communities then I think that the public can do that maths. I think that they will read through the rhetoric and bolshiness of this Government that it is on the side of law and order. In reality it is not because it has underfunded police who are frustrated with this Government.I would like to see 1000 more police on our front line and that is what this party over here the Labour Party is promising. The bonus for me in that is that I have the Royal New Zealand Police College in my electorate. I would love to see 1000 more new police trained under a Labour Government.