Tolley Anne: Address in Reply 
Tolley Anne: Address in Reply 
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Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police) 
: 
 This National-led Government of course has four key priorities for our second term as outlined by our Prime Minister: first to responsibly manage the Government’s finances; second to build a competitive and productive economy and lift of course the standard of living of all New Zealanders; third the rebuild of Christchurch; and fourth to deliver better public services—and it is that last point that I as Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections want to talk about today and to expand on the Prime Minister’s address to this House. Under National over the last 3 years crime rates have fallen. My predecessor the Hon Judith Collins oversaw immense improvements in corrections and I want to confirm in the House today that we remain firmly—firmly—focused on preventing crime reducing reoffending and most important of all keeping our communities safe. 
We are all aware that we are in very difficult economic times so this is not just about throwing money at problems; we do not have the money to throw at problems. It is about working smarter and one of the most important and exciting initiatives to be introduced by this National-led Government is Policing Excellence. This involves about eight different streams of work that will see the police and have seen the police focusing more on crime prevention making our communities safer reducing offending and all of that of course leads to fewer victims. That means fewer families grieving for lost loved ones or being affected by white collar crime which can of course have long-term implications for people as well as things as minor as burglaries which are a very difficult emotional invasion for people no matter how small the issues are. 
So Policing Excellence will increase the productivity and efficiency of our police and they have set themselves targets of a 13 percent reduction in reported crime. They want to see more crime prevented before it happens so are looking for a decrease in the amount of crime that happens and as a result of that a 13 percent decrease in the amount of crime that is recorded and a 19 percent decrease in non-traffic apprehensions resolved by prosecutions over the next 3 to 5 years. They are big targets for the police but they are determined to achieve those. 
Amongst their work streams is Prevention First. This is where we are going to give our police staff many more opportunities to be out there in communities working in areas where they know there are high risks and looking to prevent crime before it happens. When I talk to some of those front-line policemen out there they say this is the stuff that they joined the police to do. They do not want to be arresting people; they want to be making sure that they are stopping crime from happening. Neighbourhood policing teams—32 of which have now been deployed across the country—are again working in areas where the intelligence tells them the most crime is committed where young people are most likely to be congregating and getting into trouble. They are out there working with those communities coming up with all sorts of ways of preventing crimes and making those communities safer.  
Working on alternative resolutions as an alternative to taking someone through the court process is really important with our young people because the evidence is quite clear that once we get those young people into that cycle of turning up at court it is very hard to get them out of it. 
We are also looking at keeping our front-line police far more mobile. One of the worst parts of their job is having to go back to the office and write everything up. So we are looking at trialling technology so that they can actually be recording their actions at the time. They do not have to stop what they are doing and go back into an office and fill in forms. We are keeping them out there on the streets. So we are looking to increase the number of hours that police are out there working on our streets. 
And one of the last work streams is the crime reporting line. This is under way currently in Auckland City Counties Manukau and Bay of Plenty and it is due to be expanded this year. I have to say I had reason to use this myself. The police are just a phone call away. You do not have to go down to the station and fill in forms; you can talk to someone over the telephone report the crime give all the details and get your police number. It saves an awful lot of effort on behalf of the victims particularly in my area where rustling is a huge issue that has grown over the last couple of years. Farmers say to me: “Gosh to report the crime we’ve got to stop what we are doing and we are working drive down the coast—it could be an hour and a half or so to report the crime—fill in the forms and drive back.” Actually they do not want to do that and soon they will be able to pick up a telephone and report the crime. 
So in summary Policing Excellence is putting more effort into crime prevention and more hours into front-line policing and that is leading to lower rates of offending and that of course means that fewer people in our communities are the victims of crime—and that is what we want. That is what we are focused on: reducing offending. 
And of course we are interested in reducing reoffending because prisoner rehabilitation is extremely important. When you look at the figures for our prisoners you see that within a 12-month period 45 percent of prisoners released from prison are reconvicted and 27 percent of them are re-imprisoned within 12 months of release. After 24 months—after 2 years—62 percent of them are reconvicted and 39 percent are re-imprisoned. So there is a cycle that these people get on and we are determined to make sure that we can get more and more of them out of that cycle back into their families and their communities and contributing to society. So what have we done? Well over the last 3 years we have doubled the drug and alcohol treatment places for prisoners—we have doubled them—and we will continue to roll out more treatment places for prisoners. We have boosted literacy and numeracy education in prisoners which languished under the previous Labour Government and we have increased dramatically the number of prisoners who are receiving work skills training. It is so important that they have those skills so that when they leave prison they are able to take their place in the work force and of course we are determined to work with them to make sure that that happens. 
Just last week while I was visiting the Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility I spoke to offenders who were involved in the distribution of food to other prisons around New Zealand. They not only have huge pride in the work that they are doing but are using that opportunity to gain their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) qualifications. The women I spoke to were aiming for their NCEA level 2. They were pushing me to ensure that they could sit NCEA level 3—there were some minor technicalities around the use of computers that we need to resolve in order for them to achieve that. In fact this week one prisoner in Christchurch I understand has achieved the National Certificate in Distribution (Level 3). That means that these women when they leave prison will have a skill that they can take with them into the workplace. That gives them the opportunity then using our 90-day trial period legislation to get that first job to get that next step on the ladder that gets them back into the community and out of this cycle of reoffending and re-imprisonment. 
We believe we have made enormous strides in corrections over the last 3 years and for that the management deserves credit. They have done an outstanding job improving the performance of our prisons and focusing on those reoffending rates—all part of making our communities safer. Finally can I refer to a report that was released a couple of days ago showing that New Zealanders’ confidence in the New Zealand police force has soared and that is simply a reflection of all the good work that this National-led Government has done to support both the police and corrections to make our communities safer.