Mark Ron: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3975. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (NZ First): It gives me some pleasure and also some sadness actually to rise to speak in this debate on the Government’s 2015 Budget. I was reminded before I came down here that there was an interesting documentary on the former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating who provided a warning to members of his Government that they had better give heed. This Government had better give heed too given the chest-beating that we have seen over this “I Can See Red I Can See Red I See Red Budget” because that is all we see in New Zealand First. It is a red Budget but not because it is a Labour Party Budget. It is red because it is a deficit—again a deficit—despite all the promises and all the assurances.I have got to say to anybody listening when you are talking about the police budget there is only one fact that one can actually bank on when looking at this Budget and it is not the fact that there is in the Budget a $164 million increase for the police over the next 4 years—you cannot bank on that. We cannot bank on that. What we can bank on is a $41 million increase for this year—this first year. The rest of it is pie in the sky. The rest of it is all doctored and fudged to create the illusion of the potential of a surplus and maybe a tax cut. It is all designed to appease and appeal to New Zealanders who are driven by greed and driven by keeping their own money no matter what cost that actually has on the rest of New Zealand in terms of delivering services. The services I am talking about are services delivered by our police force.I do actually want to digress a little bit because the Minister raised the question of transport funding in saying how much money this Government is spending on transport. Well let us be very clear about this. Rural provincial New Zealand—go to the New Zealand Transport Agency website I say for the benefit of all the new backbench members of the National Party pull down the New Zealand Transport Agency table and look at how much funding is being cut from rural roading by your vote in this House. For Carterton Masterton and South Wairarapa that cut is 1 percent each year for the next 4 years. That will result in a 1 percent increase in rates for all of those farmers and all of those rural people if those councils want to keep pace with the same level of maintenance. That is a cut that the Government members are voting for. Let us be clear about that. All the prattling on about how much money they are spending in Auckland—actually in the Wairarapa we do not give a stuff about how much money you spend in Auckland. We want to know how much money this Government is cutting from the funding that goes to our councils because that shortfall will be met by a rates increase which is the very thing that young Nick Smith used to bleat on about when he was chastising local government.So let us look at the police budget. Looking at the estimates appropriations on page 129 it says that the total appropriation is $15 million less than it was in 2014. Output expenses are $5 million less than in Budget 2014 and the capital budget is a staggering $13 million less. That is not an increase; they are all reductions.It is so sad I have been reliably informed that on Saturday 21 March on the night of the Cricket World Cup match in Wellington there were only 18 police officers on duty in the city that night at 11 p.m.—18 police officers in the whole of Wellington city. Why do the police numbers concern New Zealand First? Well I am sorry folks beat your chests all you like over on the Government benches but there is only one party and one party alone that has consistently stood by the police when it comes to numbers and that is New Zealand First. Nobody else in history has ever produced 1000 extra police in one Budget. Nobody in their short time in Government has ever increased the police establishment by 2500. New Zealand First did that.So when we look at the shrinking size of the police force and the shrinking budget—and let us be clear: $41 million is not an increase in the police budget. It is simply marking time treading water. It is keeping things where they are and what does that mean? Well it means no extra capacity and no extra equipment. There is no extra capital works in there. There is certainly no pay rise and there is certainly no increase in the establishment.In fact what do we see? No matter where we go there is the closing of police stations in rural New Zealand. My colleague sitting beside me Ria Bond who is proud and pleased to now be representing people in the Invercargill-Southland area—in fact the whole of the lower South Island—knows about this. We know the cutbacks that have occurred down in the South Island in rural provincial New Zealand. We know the number of police stations in rural provincial New Zealand that are being closed.That is not improving capacity. That is not improving capability. That is not improving the service to New Zealand. That is not improving people’s safety and well-being or improving the standard. Do not go bleating on at me Government members about reported crime being down because a large number of the police officers I talk to say: “All we have done is change the way we collate the data.” How convenient. They changed the way they collate and report the data to present information that satisfies the Government and suits its political needs.Crime is not down. Go and ask any police officer on the beat. Go and sit in a police station and go and talk to people who put in insurance claims. What do they complain about now? Well actually they are resigned to it—they give up now. They say that reporting to the police is simply a measure you have to do to get your insurance claim accepted by a company. They have no belief whatsoever that a police officer is going to turn up take fingerprints and interview them—Hon Michael Woodhouse: They still record them.RON MARK: Mr Woodhouse do not even go there because we will start to roll out the numbers for the Minister. We will start to roll out the numbers for the Minister. Now he is looking embarrassed. He has got that little look on his face and I know that when “Woodie” the Minister gets embarrassed that little smile comes on. I have seen it enough on the rugby paddock. Look Mr Woodhouse you are the Minister of Police; you know that crime is not down. The way it has been reported has changed. The way the statistics are being presented has changed.By the way if we think that shutting down the services of Relationships Aotearoa is going to help reduce crime we in this House have got to be nuts. Relationships Aotearoa is actually one of the front-line teams that are working to reduce domestic violence and working to help the police indirectly by resolving those matters and dealing with those people who are in that situation. So once Relationships Aotearoa has closed down what do we think is going to happen with domestic violence? What do we think is going to happen with the number of people being bashed in their homes? And how many extra police officers are going to be needed to cater for that shortfall?This is short-term thinking. This is not holistic policing. This is short-term narrow-minded Budget-focused numbers-focused thinking that is all orientated around producing a Budget that gives a surplus next year maybe. Well it is not good enough. New Zealand First opposes this Budget and we will do so at the final vote.