Hudson BrettBRETT HUDSON (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well it's quite a day in the House when a Minister stands up and wilfully misleads it and we saw that today with the Minister of Police.SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. The member knows that he is out of order. There is only one way to raise an allegation of that sort—well there are actually two ways: one's by way of motion in the House and the second is by way of letter to me. If he continues that approach he will be in serious trouble.BRETT HUDSON: Thank you Mr Speaker. Well the Minister of Police—SPEAKER: No no—withdraw and apologise first.BRETT HUDSON: I withdraw and apologise—I withdraw and apologise. Thank you Mr Speaker. So the Minister of Police had something interesting to say to the House today and we may yet see him back here this evening. He tried to claim today that his mythical target of 1800 new police is just new people that weren't there before and yet what we have from Minister Nash in response to a written question written question No. 14509 (2018) his reply: The striving towards 1800 target is for growth in the number of Constabulary employees i.e. Police will recruit enough Constabulary employees to replace those that leave each year with the 1800 growth as additional recruitment." Further to that in the Estimates hearings in 2018 I quote Minister Nash: "As you alluded to Mr Bishop in the House—and I've always been very clear about this—this isn't 1800 police minus attrition; this is 1800 police as well as attrition. So we've got to train … about a thousand police a year."To back him up the Commissioner of Police in the November annual review hearing had this to say—and I quote—"That's over and above what we had before so that includes the people that we have left. So we have an attrition of about 5.5 percent. So to bring in the 1800 we are aiming to recruit about 1000 people a year (a) to maintain our previous level but also to meet the commitment of the 1800." Mr Bishop responded "So 400 leave per year you hire 1000 your net's 600 times three—that's the aim right? So what did you say—348 in the last year?" Commissioner Bush: "Over and above where it was before—yes." So for the Minister to stand in this House today and claim he's going to meet the target of 1800 next month goes against every response he has given to official questions on our written parliamentary questions in Estimates hearings and indeed in his commissioner's annual review. I think the gentleman has some answering to do. Another part that's within that and is equally concerning—I wouldn't say "more concerning"—is the attrition rate that's actually holding them back. Using the figures the Prime Minister used yesterday of 9723 front-line officers they've actually only delivered a net 707 since 1 November 2017. They're seeing attrition of experienced officers at around 50 percent of the rate of new recruits they can bring in and that's why they've only delivered 707. But what that says is that experience is leaving the force. That's bad for the police force it's bad for New Zealand and the Minister sticks his head in the sand and says "It's OK we've got recruits." Meanwhile meth supply is up and prices are tumbling but no more gang members are being prosecuted for those crimes. They see it as a lucrative business. Under this Government and this Minister of Police almost 1400 more patched and associated gang members have emerged in this country and they're not coming in from overseas. Only 22 of the deportees from Australia are gang members. This is a home-grown issue and the Minister tries to claim that he's winning. What's more he's telling the public that people who are already obeying the law will obey the law even more if he simply makes some more and that somehow that will make the public more safe. Meanwhile he's done nothing in two years of any real substance to look to get firearms out of the hands of genuine criminals and gangs. Not only did he vote himself but he got other governing members to vote against our firearms prohibition orders member's bill last year but he and his colleagues refused leave today to debate it this afternoon. All the while the firearms buy-back is continuing to fail. It's only averaging 100 firearms at each collection because the Minister ignored expert advice and he's still refusing to listen to good sense and amend the scheme to lift compliance. He's a Minister that is failing to deliver like the rest of his Government. It's time for him to take his head out of the sand and do some sensible things."