Mark Ron: General Debate 
Mark Ron: General Debate 
[Volume:625;Page:20673] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 There is another man who should leave this House with his tail between his legs. I want to bring the House’s attention to Mr George Hawkins but before I do that I will mention a couple of names. Does anyone remember Duncan Taylor? Detective Constable Duncan Taylor was shot dead in November 2003. Does anyone remember Nigel Hendrikse? He was stabbed and permanently disabled by Mongrel Mob member John Gillies in 1993. I refer the House to the promises made by George Hawkins that he would protect our men and women in blue on the streets and that he would provide them with the resources they need to do their job. So far it has taken 5 years for George Hawkins to provide front-line officers with body armour and stab-proof vests and still he procrastinates. 
That is appalling because if we look back through parliamentary questions we find that the commissioner knew about the problem in 2000. In 2003 the issue was raised by New Zealand First. On 1 April the Government told us that a great big project would be completed by 23 July 2004 and that stab-proof and bulletproof vests would be available and still it procrastinates. Then in the January-February edition of the New Zealand Police Association newsletter we saw that an officer was protected by a stab-proof vest that he had had to buy himself. 
I have just come back from visiting the Los Angeles Police Department and I can show Mr Hawkins that it is not a problem to find body armour. I say to Mr Hawkins that the body armour I am wearing right now is available to him if he wants to get off his lazy backside and buy it. That body armour is on issue to every front-line officer in Los Angeles. Police recruits are issued with this body armour at the moment they sign up and get their uniform. Does this Minister care? Why are our police not being given body armour such as this? I ask Mr Hawkins why it is taking 5 years to finalise a purchase of stab-resistant body armour so that the men and women in our force are safe. [ 
Interruption 
] I have sat here in the House all day and no one has been aware that I was wearing a bulletproof vest. 
If the Los Angeles Police Department thinks it important enough to make the men and women in their force safe by giving every one of them a bulletproof vest why do we have officers like John Dustow having to go and buy their own in New Zealand? I will tell members why. It is because we have an incompetent useless pathetic lazy do-nothing Minister of Police who cannot extract the money out of his tight-fisted Treasurer. Where are the priorities? We now know from my question in the House today that this Government would rather pay for a sex change for a paedophile and rapist than provide money for bulletproof stab-proof vests such as this for the men and women in our police force. 
I want Mr Hawkins for once in his life to stand up and take accountability. This is a occupational safety and health issue I say to the Government. This Government tells everybody that it supports the workers of New Zealand. It tells everybody that it supports the police. It chastises the Opposition for criticising the police when they get it wrong and it says that we are anti-police. 
I say to the Government that this Thursday is “money where your mouth is” time. New Zealand First will be looking in the Budget. If we do not see funding for every officer to be issued with their personal bulletproof stab-resistant vest then we will hold this Government to account. The Government should not talk to us any longer about supporting the men and women of the force if it takes as long as this—5 long years. The Minister of Police had 9 years in Opposition of chastising three Governments. He told three Governments that they could not resource the police and that they had to use Twink to paint over the damage on their police cars and what has he done? He has done nothing. 
The Minister is useless and incompetent and the officers on the street are out there now buying their own vests because they have given up on George Hawkins and the Commissioner of Police. There is no leadership. There is no priority focused on the health and well-being of officers. Maybe that is why so many of them are throwing their hands up in the air and walking away from the police force. What struck me with the police forces of Los Angeles and San Francisco was that the average length of service is 20 to 30 years.