12. Question No. 12—PoliceHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 12—Police12. Hon GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister of Police: Does he stand by his statement regarding leaving the Police force in a better position than he found it in terms of morale culture pay job satisfaction and safety that is what I'm here for and that is what I spend most of my waking hours working hard to do"?Hon CASEY COSTELLO (Associate Minister of Police) on behalf of the Minister of Police: Yes.Hon Ginny Andersen: Did his office receive an email from Casey Costello's office that requested "a copy of the Police briefing on options on different way[s] to count the 500" and does he plan to boost police morale with some creative counting?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: To the answer to the first part of the question yes. On the second part of the question no.Hon Ginny Andersen: What are the different ways to count 500 police?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As the member would know there were several issues raised while that member was responsible for recruitment. In terms of the confusion around numbers we clarified the system to ensure there was total clarity so that when we reach 2711 we will have increased the police force by 500 as New Zealand First and National committed to do.Hon Ginny Andersen: Does he agree with the serving police officer who stated about his administration "Our job is to detect deception yet they serve it to us daily not expecting us to recognise it." and if so does he consider that counting the 500 in different ways is in fact detrimental to police morale and to public confidence?Hon CASEY COSTELLO: As I've clarified there is no counting in different ways. We have clarified. But what I would say that is important to police morale is that we are getting tough on crime and we are making police able to do their job. I would highlight that the damage to police morale was affected by—and I think the Hon Duncan Webb said it best: "I think the Labour Party kind of didn't win over the community on this because even though people might not have been the victims of gang crime they felt unsafe. They felt that one day they might be and we lost that." We are not the Government that will be soft on gangs. We will support the morale of the police and allow them to get back to catching the bad guys.Hon Ginny Andersen: Can the Minister confirm that he is actually able to count to 500 and if not is that why he gave the ministerial delegation to Casey Costello?SPEAKER: No. Just a minute. I think the small problem here is that I don't think this Minister can confirm such a personal matter to another Minister. Try another question without a loss of a question.Hon Ginny Andersen: If Mark promised 500 police in two years but had 124 after eight months—SPEAKER: No no; start again.Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: Sorry. If the Minister promised 500 police in two years but had only 124 after eight months how long would it take him to reach the 1800 delivered by Labour?SPEAKER: No he's got no responsibility for any promises by the Opposition.Hon Ginny Andersen: Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table the email titled "Counting the 500" in which Minister Costello's office asked for a copy of the Police briefing on options on different ways to count the 500 from Minister Mitchell's office.SPEAKER: Is it a proactively released document?Hon Ginny Andersen: No it's not.SPEAKER: The leave is sought. Is there any objection? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House."