Mitchell Mark: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1812. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I would just like to open by congratulating first of all the Hon Judith Collins who was the Minister of Police from 2008 to 2011 and of course the Hon Anne Tolley who has now taken up the reins and is doing a fantastic job and is continuing the same brilliant work that the Hon Judith Collins started in 2008.  
Andrew Little 
: Tell us about the brilliant work! 
MARK MITCHELL 
: I will tell you a little bit about it Andrew. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! The member must refer to members by their full names or titles not their first names. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Sorry Mr Chair. I will tell you a little bit about it Andrew Little. I served in the police for 14 years. Unfortunately I served under a Labour Government.  
David Bennett 
: Shame. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: It was a shame. Morale dropped and we were always pressed to fight for funding and equipment. I left the police in 2002 and went overseas. I came back last year and I have started touching base with a lot of my colleagues and I have looked very carefully at what has been happening in the police. I am very very proud to say that morale is at an all-time high. I met with the newly appointed area commander for Rodney Inspector Scott Webb. He was saying he is now commanding a force in the Rodney area that is highly motivated and is contributing to incredible results. We keep seeing our crime statistics drop year on year. 
Phil Twyford 
: Labour policy. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: No it is nothing to do with Labour policy—Mr Phil Twyford is it? Yes. 
Phil Twyford 
: Very good. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Thank you. It is absolutely nothing to do with Labour policy. It is to do with a National Government that has come in and understood the importance of providing a strong law and order service to our communities to make our communities safer. And our communities are feeling safer. They are seeing more police on the beat. They are seeing police response times decreasing. They are seeing cases being investigated and completed in quicker times. They are seeing new initiatives like the neighbourhood support teams that are going to be out in the communities—what I see as a development of our historical community policing systems. I see a police dog section that is highly motivated and is delivering the best results it ever has. I see a police force that is providing to Kiwis a service that we probably have not seen in the last decade.  
I am very proud to be a member of this Government and a member of the National Party. If you go out and talk to the guys in the street and if you go into the mess room and actually have a chat with them they will tell you they feel supported. They feel that they have a Government that is behind them. They feel that they have a Government and a Minister of Police that are listening to them and resourcing them and are putting the resources in the right place—on the front line. That is where the resources should be—on the front line out there protecting and delivering services to our communities.  
It is with great pride that I took this call and was able to speak to the performance of our police and the services that are being provided by our police. I was very proud to be a member of the police. I am very proud to see the type of leadership that our Ministers are providing to our police and I am very proud to see the services that our police service is providing to our community. Thank you very much.