Goff Phil: Policing (Constable’s Oaths Validation) Amendment Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Third ReadingText is subject to correctionGoff Phil: Policing (Constable’s Oaths Validation) Amendment Bill — Procedure First Reading Second Reading Third Reading[Sitting date: 24 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14294. Text is subject to correction.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): I have got to say that those last comments by Mark Mitchell frankly were quite shameful. I know Helen Clark well. I worked with her for 18 years. I saw the way she related to and treated her diplomatic protection staff and I think those people in the Diplomatic Protection Squad whom I know personally would be actually disgusted at the comments that somehow she belittled them or talked them down. Could I pick up another comment that has been made by Mark Mitchell and it is that the police are far better resourced and are far better off under a National Government. Every time I meet with my local police or I go to the Police Association they tell me exactly the opposite. They say: “Look our members vote right across the sphere but you will not find a member who will not recognise the fact that it was a Labour Government that increased our police force numbers by over 1000—Le’aufa’amuliaAsenati Lole-Taylor: And New Zealand First.Hon PHIL GOFF: —in conjunction with the New Zealand First Party—by more than 1000 extra front-line staff.” Mr Mitchell what is the record of this National Government? It has increased the number of sworn staff over 5 years by 52—52 against the 1000 additional police staff that the Labour-led Government working with New Zealand First introduced.Then Mr Mitchell mentioned this: “Well we were worried about the air force’s loss of the strike force and that Labour would take the patrol cars off the police force.” I want to say to Mark Mitchell that it was under his Government that the patrol cars were cut back. That is on record. That is a fact. That is his Government’s proud track record. Do not come at me about the Defence Force because we know that the National Government has cut the Defence Force by 1200 since 2009—1200 or 12 percent—and there are the highest attrition rates in the history of this country. Even in the police force we are seeing attrition rates that are double what they were 3 years ago. That does not indicate to me Mark Mitchell that the police are really happy with what this Government is doing. In fact if the member listens to what Greg O’Connor said this morning he said: “One thing that’s really worrying us is that they have slashed the non-sworn staff down by 234 and what is the product of that? The product of that is that the officer—man or woman—who should be out on the front line is having to do the jobsthat once upon a time were done by the non-sworn staff.” That is not my comment as a politician; that is the comment of Greg O’Connor who has been once again re-elected president of the Police Association. I just want to clean up those particular remarks.For the public listening to this debate and hearing that this Parliament is now in urgency and passing the Policing (Constable’s Oaths Validation) Amendment Bill a piece of legislation that will have retrospective effect through all of its stages—all of its stages—they will be saying: “Oh no not again. When is this Government going to get things right?”. They remember the Crown Minerals Amendment Act earlier this year when exactly the same thing happened. Sadly we had the same thing happen with the Policing Act earlier on. To paraphrase the words of Oscar Wilde one mistake might be unfortunate but a second mistake is careless. I want to ask the Minister of Police whether her predecessor was careless in not exercising oversight over whether this legislation was properly implemented or where the nature of the fault lies because in having to pass this legislation we are letting people down.First of all Mark Mitchell we are letting down the police because how do you think it feels to be a front-line police officer who came back into the force after leaving to find that for 3 years they had been operating unlawfully because of a botch-up in the administration of the Policing Act? How do those police officers feel? You know how they feel. They feel terrible that they have been out there in good faith doing their job only to find that when they were sworn in as a police officer in a ceremony that made them incredibly proud it had been botched. They were not lawfully sworn officers and that is a disgrace. I have to say that normally I would not be in this House advocating that we support a piece of legislation that is retrospective and going through under urgency. But I have to say as a member of a party in Opposition the Labour Party which has always been responsible in regard to this sort of legislation that we will pass this legislation because I do not want to see victims see the people who offended against them—sometimes grievously—getting off the hook and not being accountable for their crimes because of a botch-up in the administration of the Policing Act under this Government. That is why we are passing this legislation. We are passing it to protect the victims and to give back respect to those 63 unfortunate officers who have been working hard in good faith only to find that the rug was pulled out from under them because the Government did not get it right—because the Government did not get it right.What I am really worried about is that this botch-up is symptomatic of a malaise that is now affecting the police force. Look I do not care what the members of the Government might claim. When you have the number of sworn staff cut by 234 making it harder for the front-line staff to do their job when the numbers of front-line staff are not even keeping up with the increase in population—Hon Anne Tolley: Crime is at a 30-year low—17.5 percent reduction.Hon PHIL GOFF: The ratios of police to population have gone down Anne Tolley. They have gone down under your administration. At the Law and Order Committee you were finally forced to own up that the police budget has been cut in real terms over the last 2 years. You were forced to admit that. The Minister of Police was forced to admit that because the facts were there and her own officials said: “You’re wrong Minister.” This Government is not increasing the funding in real terms for the police force; it is cutting it.” That is on record. That is in the transcript—Hon Anne Tolley: They never said that.Hon PHIL GOFF: That is in the transcript of the select committee Anne Tolley and the Minister cannot deny that. This Government—Mark Mitchell you were there—has cut the funding for the police force. It has not kept up the increase in police numberswith the increase in population and it has slashed the non-sworn staff to put more responsibilities and more work on the shoulders of the police officers.On top of that it has done what every one of those members who fought in the 2008 election campaign promised they would not do. It has closed police stations. You know what those members said at the select committee? They said: “We haven’t closed police stations; we’ve closed kiosks.” Do you know what a kiosk is? It is something that is three-sided with one side open to the public. It is not a police station. I have got the photos—and offer to table them in this House—of police stations that have been closed across Auckland by this Government which said it would never do that. My police station in Mount Roskill South was closed to the public with a notice which is now yellow with age which says “Temporarily closed”—temporarily closed for 8 months in breach of the undertaking that the Minister and the Commissioner of Police gave me at the select committee.It is an absolute disgrace that the police should be put in those circumstances facing these sorts of botch-ups not having adequate levels of staffing having police stations closed and having the non-sworn staff who are there to support them being slashed. That is a poor record Minister. The reason that crime came down in this country was the reforms the increase in staffing for the police the reforms of the law and the reforms of the corrections system that happened under a Labour Government. I am proud of that and I am glad to see the police doing their job well because we increased their numbers by 1000. But this police force is getting no support from a Government that allows botch-ups like this to happen and allows police resources to be cut back. As for the money they are funded with their numbers—you know Counties Manakau is an area that I and other members of this House know well. What was the cut in the police personnel numbers there under this National Government? It was 104—104 police personnel were cut from Counties Manukau an area that has had traditionally one of the highest crime rates. The Government will not cut numbers in Remuera and Parnell but it will cut them in South Auckland and Counties Manukau because it does not care about the victims of crime if those victims of crime happen to be people from low-income communities.Regrettably we need this legislation. We need to put right the botch-up that has happened. We need to protect the police officers. We need to protect the victims of crime. That is why we are supporting this legislation but it brings no credit to this tawdry National Government.