Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm going to speak about my portfolio areas that I asked our incoming leader Christopher Luxon for when he became our leader. The reason why I did that is because I'm deeply passionate about them with the first one being police the second one being the counter-terrorism role and the third one being the Serious Fraud Office.When I first became a proud member of this House back in 2011 I was also very proud of the fact that I had had a policing career myself. But I didn't seek any law and order - type portfolios because number one I was very conscious coming into this House that you can be labelled and I didn't want to be labelled just as being focused on law and order. The second thing was that I was very fortunate to have had a decade with a business career overseas and I'd become very passionate about trade and our economic future. So I stayed away from the law and order portfolios to a large extent but the reason why I ask for the police portfolio now is because certainly at no time that I can remember and talking to a lot of my colleagues that are still either serving or have retired from the police can we ever remember the situation in this country being so bad in terms of the growth of gang numbers the proliferation of weapons and gang members willing to carry weapons and the worst thing is they're willing to use them. I know for a fact that in my own community my own electorate of Whangaparāoa we've been very lucky to have been gang-free and our local police have worked very hard at keeping the gangs out. We had the Comancheros who tried to buy residential property in Ōmaha and our sergeant up there was very effective in working with our local real estate agents in ensuring that they were blocked. We had the Mongrel Mob who tried to buy a pad on the Hibiscus Coast and again the police worked very proactively in ensuring that they were blocked and they didn't come into our community. But unfortunately two years ago we had the Hell's Angels buy commercial property in Silverdale and they've set up a pad there and then we had the Comancheros move in. In the last month we've had the Hell's Angels and the Mongols decide that it's cool to have a stand-off and violence and to discharge weapons in the community. Now I'm working at a local level with our other elected representatives—our councillors our local board—and I meet every month with my police area commander. We've just lost Mark Fergus—I want to pay a tribute to him; he did an outstanding job for the last six years—and we've welcomed in our new area commander. We make it very clear to them that our community has an expectation that they will police professionally but they will use every tool available to them to put as much pressure on these gangs and we will find ways of pushing them back out of the community and get rid of what they bring and that is organised crime recruitment of our young people the peddling of drugs and house burglaries.But the problem is I can do that and try to be as effective as I can in my own patch but they're just going to move somewhere else. They'll move across the boundary. They'll go and set up somewhere else if we do that. We've got a massive problem in this country with gangs and gang-related crime. I was in Palmerston North last night. I had a public meeting in Palmerston North last night and I had a young female police officer come along to that. She is completely totally demoralised. They go out and they deal—especially up there—with these boy racers. They'll take action against them they'll arrest them and they'll charge them and the next day they'll be out dealing with the same offenders and it's demoralising for them. They join the police primarily with one thing in mind and that's keeping their communities safe. Of course you will have seen in the media that there was a police officer in Palmerston North who was assaulted who was attacked by some brave boy racer that decided to come up and strike him from behind—king-hit him; could have killed him—and he's still in hospital recovering.We've had young Matthew Hunt and David Goldfinch. Matthew Hunt was gunned down by Eli Epiha in broad daylight on the streets of West Auckland—a gang member that had easy access to high-powered military-style rifles. We had David Goldfinch a father of two young children that through his own perseverance and his own quick thinking was able to actually extract himself and survive although survive barely. He's got injuries that will follow him along for the rest of his life.We're going to have a debate in this country and it's an important one around the general arming of our police and whether or not we think it's right to send them out to deal with armed gang members with firearms and whether we think it's right that they can possibly be put in the same position as Matt or David. It's wrong. I can tell you one thing: when I was in the police I didn't care about politics. I was a young guy. I was motivated by the same things today that our own young police officers are out there doing—that is they want to be effective they want to look after their community and they want to know that they're backed. They want to know that the leadership is behind them and that when they go out and do their job they don't have to be watching their own backs because they know the bosses have got them. Now there's a quid pro quo and that is that they have to act professionally and they always have to look at the least amount of force if they're having to use it in terms of what they're trying to achieve. The police service is not perfect like any organisation. But in my experience any rotten apples are identified and drummed out very quickly. We have got one of the most professional world-class police services in the world and I talk to that with some authority because I've been lucky enough to have worked trained and watched other police forces around the world operate and I'm extremely proud of the police service that we have here.This debacle out here at the front they now have to try and clean up and deal with. That's not of their making. The making of that starts in here because there wasn't proper communication and because we have Kiwis that are deeply affected and upset by vaccine passports and mandates. We supported those. We supported—Hon Michael Wood: Right you're going to defend the lawbreakers now? Hon MARK MITCHELL: —no I don't need an interjection from Wood—a light touch on those because we recognised the importance of them but we were also very clear that they weren't to go too far and they were to be removed as soon as practicable because we could see very clearly that it was divisive. Now you've got a big mess sitting on the lawn that you expect the very police force to deal with that you'll not support on a daily basis.I can tell you now—and I'll come back to it—when I was in the police Mr Wood I didn't care about politicians. I wasn't even that interested in who the Minister of Police was but I can tell you right now that the young men and women that I talk to when I come into this precinct out the back here that stand out in the rain that put up with the verbal abuse that are there to protect us—they've got no faith in their police Minister. They don't believe in her. She might be a lovely woman and she came into this place like we all do with a passion for something. But I can tell you one thing: it's not a passion for our police force. It's not a passion for our men and women on the thin blue line. She's not behind them. She doesn't even understand what they do let alone what they need and when you pick up a portfolio and within the first two months you come out and you accuse the very service that you're meant to be supporting of being racist then you're going to lose the support.For the first time that I've ever seen in this country police officers know who their police Minister is OK? They've got zero faith and the best thing that this Government can do and the Prime Minister could do if she wants to show some leadership on this matter—because I acknowledge and respect the fact that she grew up in a police family. I have a lot of respect for her father Ross Ardern. Make a positive move and change the police Minister because I tell you what our police service deserves much better leadership than what it's getting at the moment.I see shaking of the heads on the other side so I take that to mean that the Labour Party think they are getting the support that they need and that they are getting the leadership that they need. Well I tell you what here's a good idea: go outside this building walk out the back door there go and talk to some of them and just thank them. Just say Thank you for being here. Thank you for doing what you're doing." They're under enormous pressure. The other thing that you could do is the 1800 police officers that were meant to be delivered in July of 2020: how about delivering them? You're 500 behind and now you're saying July 2023. The best thing you can do for them is this: back them support them unequivocally and give them the number that they need. Actually a bit more pay would be good too instead of pay freezes in terms of the job that they have to do.So my message to the Labour Government and the Minister quite simply is this: get out and support your police service—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. Rachel Brooking—a five-minute call."