Hide Rodney: General Debate 
Hide Rodney: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19469] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 What a difference a couple of years makes! I remember when those members opposite used to spend all their energy in trying to defend the Waipareira Trust. 
Let me talk about something that is of concern to all New Zealanders—the protection of the citizens of New Zealand. How is it that Helen Clark expresses her confidence in George Hawkins when her own party the Labour Party clearly does not? Let us just read the list of who was put above George Hawkins when the Labour Party came to its selection. That outstanding Minister Parekura Horomia is at No. 5. Dover Samuels is at No. 10. That outstanding performer in the House Taito Phillip Field is at No. 13. That great man over there Mita Ririnui well known to New Zealanders for his sterling works is at No. 15. Judith Tizard the “Minister of Knitting” is at No. 18 and Luamanuvao Winnie Laban is at No. 20. That great campaigner for New Zealanders’ rights Mahara Okeroa is at No. 22—way up at No. 22. Then of course we have that well-known MP for all good things Jill Pettis at No. 24. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: What number are you on the ACT party list? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Oh thank God I am not on the Labour Party list! Then we have the great parliamentarian for the Labour Party Mr Ashraf Choudhary at No. 25. 
What is the No. 1 issue confronting New Zealanders? It is police resourcing: the fact that when we ring 111 we cannot get help and that when a person’s dairy gets robbed that person cannot get help. There is a Minister of Police who cannot perform and Labour Party officials had originally put him down at No. 25 on the list—below all those MPs below all those Ministers—and George Hawkins has too much dignity to take that role. I can see why they put him at No. 25. 
Simon Power 
: Why is that? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well just around from his electorate office there is a dairy and that dairy gets robbed once twice or three times a month. People just walk in. The police know where they live they know their names. Those people could be caught in 5 minutes. They are on video and I can confirm that to this House. I have seen the video and the perpetrators can be recognised perfectly. [ 
Interruption 
] Dover Samuels thinks that that is funny. Those people walk in off the street take their bread take their Coke and take a bag of chips. They might also take a pie or some cigarettes—and then they walk out. 
The dairy owner rings the police but the police write a letter saying they are too busy and George Hawkins whose office is along the road does not know about it. What is Helen Clark’s response? Her response is to bag the sergeant—the hard-working Sergeant Fogarty a front-line police officer—for writing the letter. Is that not the classic response of Helen Clark—to bag the messenger? She did not say that what he said was wrong. She said that his letter was ill-advised—because it ran counter to the spin she wants in order to say that crime rates are down. 
I will tell members why the crime rate is down. Just down the road from the dairy—whose owner has reported robbery only four times but who has been robbed maybe two dozen times in a year—is a bakery. That gets robbed more regularly. Not once has the baker complained to the police—not once. I asked the baker why not. He said: “Why would you bother?”. Why would anyone bother complaining to the police when they do not come but just file the complaint? That is what is happening under this Government and Dover Samuels thinks it is funny. Dover Samuels thinks it can be denied but he—like George Hawkins—does not know what is happening along the road. 
We learned today that in south Auckland—the Counties-Manukau Police District—there are 1167 unallocated cases. Those are cases under investigation that do not have a police officer investigating them.