Tolley Anne: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tolley Anne: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3629. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. Dr Seuss said: “All alone!”—[ 
Interruption 
] I am a good leader—“Whether you like it or not alone is something you’ll be quite a lot.” I found that quote which I thought was reminiscent of the Labour leader. I thought that summed up Mr Shearer perfectly but actually now I am thinking that that quote also applies to two of the Labour members sitting there on the bench together as to how they are going to feel— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: 
Co-defendants. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: —the co-defendants—in the court case. So maybe we could apply Dr Seuss’ quote about being all alone to the whole— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Can I take it seeing as you are allowing this member to refer to the court case that we can talk about John Key’s appearance as a witness here? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I must confess the noise was so loud I could not actually hear what the Minister was saying. All I would ask is for the House please to come to reasonable order. The House has had a few laughs but it is time now to be able to hear members in this general debate. I cannot rule if I cannot hear them. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: In continuing that line from Dr Seuss about being all alone he also said: “You can get help from teachers but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself sitting alone in a room.” Can I suggest that that is a good lesson—a good lesson—for the leader of the Labour Party especially in light of the changes that have recently been made to the party’s constitution. 
I do not want to spend any more time talking about the other side of the House; I am really pleased to be standing as a member of the National Government led by John Key whose economic leadership has placed this country and its people in a very strong position. One percent inflation—the lowest level in 12 years— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What’s the debt level? 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: The lowest level of inflation in 12 years. This means that the everyday cost of living as measured by our Consumers Price Index is increasing at its slowest rate in 12 years. At the same time we are seeing floating mortgage rates at about 5.7 percent—at their lowest level for 45 years. Those figures cannot be—cannot be—disputed by anyone in this House and that means that under the economic leadership of this Government New Zealanders are seeing that they are able to save more they are able to pay down debt and they are able to get ahead. 
While inflation has been falling the economy is starting to grow moderately: in the last quarter it grew by 1.1 percent. So the future is looking brighter for New Zealanders under a John Key - led Government. And of course we know that John Key set out for this Government recently 10 areas under Better Public Services—10 results that he wants to see this Government achieve by 2017. 
I just want to talk a little bit about what is happening for crime because we have set for ourselves a target to see that crime is falling and our communities are safer. We want to see a reduction in the crime rate by 15 percent the violent crime rate by 20 percent the number of youth appearing in the youth courts by 5 percent and the rate of reoffending by 25 percent by 2017. 
The announcement today of the work that the police are doing in addressing the growing drug problem in this country shows that we are well on track—we are well on track—to achieving those targets. As a result of that operation today the police seized under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 14 residential properties worth over $4.5 million; eight cars worth $260000; nine bank accounts worth an estimated $353000; and also a boat worth $40000. So this message is sent by the police: follow the money. You have got to follow the money. If we want to address crime and these criminal organisations we have to follow the money. This shows the work that our policemen and policewomen are doing. 
In addition to that of course I announced yesterday as part of the work that the Department of Corrections is doing that record numbers of prisoners are involved in education and record numbers are involved in work and in employment learning those skills that they need in order to go back out into our communities because the majority of our prisoners do come back into our communities. The majority of them do come back.