Rurawhe Adrian; Andersen GinnyPoliceCHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Members we now have the Minister of Police.GINNY ANDERSEN (Chairperson of the Justice Committee): Thank you Mr Chair. Look as chair of the Justice Committee I'd like to take a brief call to outline the work that was done with the Justice Committee in terms of the Estimates for 2022-23 for Vote Police and Vote Serious Fraud.As part of this year's Budget the approach intends to increase collaboration across the public service agencies and improve value for money for New Zealanders. The justice cluster includes Police Justice Corrections the Crown Law Office and the Serious Fraud Office. Ministers within that group identified key priority areas and those include better outcomes for victims improved access to justice and addressing issues with remand and finally better-enabled organisations and workforce.In terms of Police we heard first and foremost about organised crime. In May 2022 the Government announced a joint initiative between the Ministry of Justice New Zealand Police and the Department of Corrections to address gang crime and the violence associated with gang crime. The appropriation for preventing harm from organised crime through the cross-agency approach has $94 million over four years to fund this initiative. The bulk of this funding goes to New Zealand Police with $87.3 million. The appropriation funds work to combat organised crime and programmes to prevent harm caused by drugs firearms violence and serious criminal offences. Part of that work we heard at the committee was also in the seizure of illicit drugs such as methamphetamine. In June 2022 Police seized almost $60000 worth of methamphetamine and more than $11000 in cash. That particular operation was in the Bay of Plenty. The Commissioner of Police told us that police will continue to do work in this area. We heard that the National Organised Crime Group and district police stations aim to identify methamphetamine supply paths and hold those suppliers to account. The police commissioner also told us that waste-water testing provides information that is very useful to track down and find where methamphetamine is being used. The police have access to 75 percent of the waste-water network. The police commissioner said that police saw in increase in methamphetamine during COVID-19 lockdowns which aligns with their understanding of levels of stress and police have subsequently focused on addressing the demand for methamphetamine and what attracts people to use drugs.We've also heard of some other initiatives in terms of where work is being done to prevent crime or address the underlying causes of crime and Te Pae Oranga was an example provided to the committee. Budget 2022 proposes funding $81.85 million over four years for initiatives relating to Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels. This initiative aims to address the underlying causes of low-level offending. It started back in 2013 with Iwi Community Panels just in the Hutt Valley Gisborne and Manukau. This has subsequently been expanded to substantially more sites.The police commissioner told us that the formal criminal process is not always effective in addressing the underlying causes of offending and we have heard that police have seen a 22 percent reduction in harm from reoffending when people have participated in Te Pae Oranga. There are Iwi Community Panels in 20 locations around the country but the police plan on establishing Iwi Community Panels in 10 more locations soon.The last point I'll touch on is the improvement in diversity in the New Zealand Police service. The Minister told us that one of the biggest areas where crime is under-reported is sexual offending. He told us that he hopes that increasing the diversity in the police will help to address this issue. The Minister said that the increasing number of women joining the police service over the past five years is worthy of acknowledgment and celebration particularly because women are disproportionately affected by sexual offending. The police commissioner told us that communities that experience issues such as family harm more than others—he said that people need to feel comfortable cooperating with the police when the police service reflects the diversity of our communities and they will continue to strive to meet marks in those areas.I'd like to conclude by saying that the Justice Committee was well-engaged and had a good time asking the range of questions we did. It was a good report back in terms of the progress being made overall in the areas of Vote Police and Vote Serious Fraud.