2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterCHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Prime Minister): Yes particularly this Government's action in securing a gold-standard trade agreement with the United Kingdom. From today the UK free-trade agreement unlocks unprecedented access to the UK market for our exporters adding up to a billion dollars a year to our GDP over time. Implementation of the agreement will immediately save around $37 million with the instant elimination of tariffs and new duty-free quotas covering 99.5 percent of our current exports. This is a major delivery milestone and sits alongside the seven new or upgraded free-trade agreements secured to date by the Labour Government—which is helping to contribute to record earnings for our exporters and thereby helping to soften the pressure of the current global economic environment.Christopher Luxon: Was his police Minister correct when she said New Zealanders feel safer under Labour." despite violent crime increasing 33 percent retail crime doubling and gang membership up 66 percent?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I know the member has concerns about literacy and numeracy in schools. One of the things that kids learn in schools around comprehension is to read the whole of the sentence rather than just a little bit of it. Because if he had done that he would find that the Minister was specifically talking about the 1800 extra police that have been put on the beat under this Government which stands in quite stark contrast to the reduction in the number of police relative to the size of the population under the last National Government.Christopher Luxon: Does he think New Zealanders feel safer?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think Kiwis feel safer when there are more police on the beat. And 1800 extra police on the beat is a pretty good track record from this Government.Christopher Luxon: Is violent crime higher or lower than six years ago?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The member himself will know that the statistics around violent crime show that there has been an escalation in violent crime and I think all Governments should take that seriously.Christopher Luxon: Is retail crime higher or lower than six years ago?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: It is higher.Christopher Luxon: Is gang membership higher or lower than six years ago?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: We've been very clear—the member himself has been very clear—that there has been an escalation in gang membership and gang activity in New Zealand. In particular I note the member himself blames the Australians for that in his public comments when he talked about the fact that it was the 501s that have contributed to that. I'm very proud of the work that the police have been doing to crack down on gang activity. I note that something like 33000 charges have been laid against gang members as part of Operation Cobalt. We are backing the police to do that work with extra resources and extra cops on the beat which is more than they got under the last Government.Christopher Luxon: Does he stand by his claim in January about ram raids when he said "I think it is a very significant priority and you can be reassured I won't be taking my eyes off that one."; and if so why have ram raids increased 55 percent since he became Prime Minister?Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In answer to the first part of the question: yes absolutely and our work in that area is not done. The focus that we have had is on reducing offending rather than having young people going into a repeat cycle of offending. So the turnaround programmes that we've put in place for example have seen between 70 and 80 percent of the kids referred to those not reoffending. I note that the one policy the National Party have come up with—which is to send those kids to boot camps—results in about an 80 percent reoffending rate. So given the choice between a policy that could reduce reoffending by about 80 percent or have about 80 percent of them reoffending of course only the National Party—or maybe the ACT Party—tend to choose the one that results in the higher level of reoffending."