Power Simon: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Power Simon: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:648;Page:16877] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 That was not quite vintage Paul Swain; it lacked a certain finesse. I have a message for the Hon Paul Swain from the office of the Leader of the Opposition: Stop sending us your CV. We have six copies and that is all we need. We have it on file just leave it alone. 
We are dealing here with the Appropriation (2007/08 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and it is worth starting the discussion with a round figure that members will be more than familiar with that came out of Treasury in the 2002-03 year and which is the latest official statistic we have in this particular area. What we know from Treasury is that in that year the cost of crime to the economy was $9.1 billion. Listeners at home might be saying to themselves: “Well that makes a bit of sense. If you include the court system the prison system and the police in that then maybe it is $9 billion.” But no two-thirds of that $9 billion is made up of private money. Two-thirds of that is dollars that have to be spent to remove graffiti from walls to have car doors knocked out and re-panelled to take dents out of them to replace goods that are stolen from homes in burglaries and to have insurance premiums increased because houses have been robbed yet again—two-thirds of $9.1 billion. Dear old Paul Swain asks where we would make some savings. Well if we could cut the crime rate in this country we would have far more surplus moneys for meaningful investments like education health and the like. 
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice are fond of saying that crime is tracking across all categories at a reasonably steady level. That is true except for one area—violent crime. Since this Government took office violent crime has risen by 43 percent. We know that since this crowd took office youth violent crime has increased by 47 percent over that period. This is the same Labour Party that in its first pledge card—I am not sure who paid for that one—said it would attack crime and the causes of crime. Well there has been a 43 percent increase in violent crime across the board. 
When we talk about supplementary estimates and a Government’s ability to spend money and to budget properly we know that in the law and order and justice areas this Government has been incapable of doing even the most basic things. The Government has had six Ministers of Corrections in the last 8½ years. They budgeted $400 million to build four new prisons which turned out to cost over $1 billion—a $600 million budget blowout. Paul Swain gets up in the House and asks where the National Party would save money. Well I say to Mr Swain that I have a few ideas where we can save some money—the $11 million to landscape those four new prisons. That money could have been spent on work programmes and drug and alcohol rehabilitation courses in our prisons. Instead—and it would not have happened under Paul Swain if he were still the Minister of Corrections—the Labour Party goes out and spends $11 million on ferns and pavers. I say to Mr Swain that I can find plenty of areas to save money in the justice area and plenty of good places to put it. 
We have policy coming out of our ears in the law and order area. As my friend Darren Hughes alluded to the justice policy was delivered up to the leadership of the National Party on 1 November last year and we have seen four announcements so far in that area with another three or four to come before the election. We have seen policy announced in the areas of police gangs victims and youth crime and the Government—and we are flattered by this—is adopting those policies like they are going out of fashion. In the area of gangs when a document was approved by Cabinet on 9 July 2007 or thereabouts the Government sat on its hands and did nothing while Mark Burton played around with the Electoral Finance Act. The Government put rorting the electoral system ahead of dealing to gangs in New Zealand. The Minister of Justice’s priority was rorting the electoral system in favour of the incumbent rather than dealing with the gangs and violent crime that were going on in New Zealand. That is what this Government’s priorities are. It is looking after its own neck and not worrying about the New Zealand public having to face down the massive increase in violent crime that we have seen since this Government took office. 
Two points out of our four-point plan on dealing with gangs have hurriedly been adopted by the Government in the last week in a way that just reeks of desperation. So quick was the Government to try to quell the growing public concern over its inability to deal with violent crime that when the Organised Crime (Penalties and Sentencing) Bill came to us to tick off it still had Mark Burton’s name on it. He has not been the Minister of Justice for well over 12 months. This was badly prepared terribly reactionary and badly thought through. We say to Labour members that if they think our policy is so good they should adopt the other two points from our four-point plan for dealing with gangs. Let us see getting surveillance and interception orders from the court made easier. Let us see the Local Government Act amended to make sure we can storm gang fortifications on the basis of reasonable expectation that a crime has been committed on those premises. While we are at it let us adopt National’s police policy which is also a four-point plan. Let us adopt National’s victims policy which was widely endorsed by third parties when it was released earlier this year. While we are at it let us adopt National’s platforms for dealing with youth crime and changes of youth sentences. 
I sit here and listen to the Labour Party members talking about lack of ideas and lack of policy so let us have a debate about ideas and policy in the justice and law and order areas because we are winning this debate hands down. It is a debate that is being won on ideas and policy head-to-head. We are winning that debate. My colleague and friend Dr Cullen scoffs; it is his Cabinet that is adopting our plans as if they are going out of fashion. I just wish that as Leader of the House he had reminded Annette King to change the name on the front of the bill from Mark Burton to Annette King when she decided to introduce a paper that had been ticked off by Cabinet in July last year. Mr Burton was too busy dealing with the Electoral Finance Act to worry about gangs and violent crime in New Zealand. So when we talk about Government spending and waste and the policy debate that this country will have leading into this general election let us have a debate about law and order justice corrections police and youth crime issues—anywhere any time. National has a plan and we are announcing it Labour is adopting it and it is going extremely well.