Tolley Anne: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tolley Anne: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8025. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police) 
: 
 What a fantastic start to the year this John Key - led National Government has had—what a fantastic start. As much as the Opposition might want to scrape the bottom of the barrel and throw accusations and mud around this House this Government is delivering for New Zealanders and what is more New Zealanders know it. In the last two public polls that we have had in the last week what have we seen? We have seen 49 percent support for National in Television One’s poll and what 45 percent in Fairfax’s. Actually it is around about the election result at the end of 2011. In fact that shows that New Zealanders think that no matter how much the Labour Opposition and its colleagues the Greens might like to come to this House be nasty and throw accusations around that have no substance in fact—no substance in fact—the people of New Zealand actually do not give a toss what they say whether inside the House or not. They can see that this Government is getting on with doing things that actually matter to everyday New Zealanders. 
We had the Prime Minister’s announcement at the beginning of the year of the increase in and reorganisation around apprenticeships and that went down well out in provincial New Zealand I can tell you. Then the Prime Minister came to this House and made his annual statement and that was well received. That showed New Zealanders that the National-led Government has a strong plan that it is focused on its four priorities and that it knows that it is slow and steady as she goes. No rinky-dinky silver bullets are going to make this economy suddenly start up and printing money is not a good idea. 
I want to take just a few minutes to talk about two portfolios that I have responsibility for that have had an enormous start to the year 2013. So far this year we have announced first of all that we are turning three prisons into working prisons to make sure that prisoners get increased opportunities for employment training. So that means structured 40-hour weeks for prisoners working inside those prisons getting good work experience getting good qualifications and having a better chance of not reoffending when they leave prison. 
We have talked about the increase in police foot patrols. There is an average 70 percent increase across New Zealand in police out on the beat in their communities—visible preventing crime and deterring crime from happening. The Prime Minister and I launched last week the delivery to our police of expert technology that they should have had years ago. You have to wonder what the Labour Party did with all those surpluses that it had. Labour did not equip our modern police with modern technology but this Government is supporting them with the roll-out of technology. That roll-out will mean an extra half a million front-line policing hours every year available for crime prevention. 
Last week I opened in Christchurch the new police station. That is a first in this country because we have Police and the Department of Corrections working together in the same building. That was an enormous ask and a significant event not just for Christchurch but also for the justice sector. Corrections and Police are working together talking together and making sure that they work together to keep our communities safe. 
That is a fantastic start to the year for National’s work on law and order but actually that is what this Government has been delivering. We have seen a clamping down—and there is legislation before this House at the moment—on the criminal activity of gangs. We are taking seriously the criminal activity of organised crime both in this country and internationally. The Prime Minister himself has led the efforts to clamp down on the production and sale of methamphetamine—that terrible terrible drug that does such damage to our children. We have toughened sentences and we have toughened bail and we have abolished parole for the worst repeat offenders. We have put 600 extra police on the streets. The contrast with the previous Government which was transporting prisoners around in police vans because it had taken so little—