4. Question No. 4—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 4—Prime Minister4. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Prime Minister): Yes—in particular the action through this year's Budget to deliver the biggest pay increase in over a decade for Defence Force personnel and to build on this Government's record investments in upgrading New Zealand's military capability. We have an obligation to ensure that our soldiers sailors and aviators are fairly paid for the critical and often dangerous work that they do and this Government takes that responsibility very seriously on behalf of all New Zealanders.David Seymour: What percentage of GDP will be spent on defence as a result of this announcement and how will that compare with Australia's recent announcement that they will be going beyond 2 percent of GDP as they respond to the geopolitical realities of the South Pacific?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Our spend on defence—depending on how you measure it—hovers at around 1 percent of GDP. Our Government is very much focused on the capability we need rather than a spending target. I would have thought that the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers would be more interested in what we are paying for rather than how much we are paying for it.David Seymour: Is the Prime Minister seriously saying that he believes that the New Zealand Defence Force will be able to deliver the level of service expected by Australians for half their budget and could he explain what magic they'll be using?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm not so much focused on the level of service expected by Australians; I'm focused on the level of service expected by New Zealanders. What they are looking for is a Defence Force that is well resourced and equipped to be able to respond to the challenges in front of them. That includes being able to deploy to natural disasters as we have seen them doing in recent times very successfully. It means contributing to the international efforts that we do currently contribute to and may wish to contribute to in the future. And it means ensuring that we have the capabilities that we need such as for example for search and surveillance. I note that this Government has invested heavily in ensuring the futureproofing of those capabilities something that the previous Government supported by the ACT Party never did.David Seymour: Does he stand by his statement: If you look at the apprehension rate for people who have undertaken that offending it's very high. Police have done a good job of finding those people" when the apprehension rate in question for retail burglaries was only 19 percent?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: As I made clear at the time I wasn't referring to all burglaries; I was referring particularly to ram raids because that was the context of the question that was being asked. So if you look across 1100 such offences since the beginning of last year there have been just under 700 prosecutions just under 300 youth referrals and there are around 200 that remain under active investigation. I think the police have been doing very good work in following up on that offending and ensuring that those who have been doing it face the consequences for their actions.David Seymour: So retail burglary offenders getting away with it 81 percent of the time is OK because that's not what the Prime Minister was talking about—right?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No I didn't claim that. I do note that the work the police have done in recent years to make it easier for retailers to report retail crime including shoplifting does mean that police have a fuller picture now of the true extent of that activity. I think that is a good thing and police will continue to follow up on it.David Seymour: Does he still stand by his statement when there were more than 3000 aggravated robberies but only 1300 proceedings taken against offenders last year?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Whether or not a proceeding takes place does not necessarily provide the full picture of the response from police. I do want to note that under this Government we have nearly—we've nearly got there—1800 extra police on the beat. And I note that the ACT Party voted against the funding to deliver that.David Seymour: Does he stand by his 31 January statement that "The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues" and does he believe Stuart Nash Kiri Allan and Meka Whaitiri have all been focused on core bread and butter issues?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the first part of the question yes I absolutely do.David Seymour: And what about those three Ministers that went missing?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I dealt with all of those at the time."