Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:621;Page:16435] 
3.  
RON MARK (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Has he received any reports in relation to published comments in the May 2004 issue of  
Police News 
 that state “the overall level of service provided to front-line staff by the centre (as a whole and NOT the individuals) is—solely because of inadequate staffing levels—poor.”; if so what action does he intend to take? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 I have read the article not in the May 2004 issue but in the June edition of the  
Police News 
 where Rob Neill a highway patrol officer wrote a letter to the editor. This Government has provided an additional 18 staff to police communication centres since that time. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Just through you to the Minister because he seems to have missed it could I possibly have tabled now so that he can have copies the May 2004 report and the June one? He needs to read a bit more widely. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Yes the member can seek leave. Is there any objection? There is. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Don’t be a smart alec! 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I do not need any comments like that. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You said you did not need any comments like that. My colleague is seeking to table the evidence which you would have seen when the question was originally submitted to you. But nevertheless the Minister gets up and behaves like a smart alec by trying to say he is quoting from the wrong publication. Now that is a form of behaviour of which he is too frequently guilty and he needs to be brought to book in this House. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister did say he was quoting from the June issue and he is entitled to do that. 
Ron Mark 
: Is it not a fact that this report identified very clearly that emergency calls have increased by 50 percent while staffing levels have decreased by 2.11 percent that in order to cover these staff reductions operators are being forced to “link channels” which has been identified as an operational risk and that ultimately it is the public who are being forced to pay the price for this Government’s failure to provide the level of resourcing our police force needs? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The member must realise that since that report was published 18 new positions have been made available in the police communication centres and of course the service to the public has continued to improve. May I tell the Minister that 111 call answering has gone up from 76 percent up to 80 percent—up 4 percent in the first quarter of this year. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Could the Minister in terms of any surveys carried out outline what front-line police think about the service provided to them by the police communication centres to enable them to adequately assist the public? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: In July 2004 a survey of 450 front-line staff regarding the service provided by the communication centres was conducted and 91 percent of them rated the daily interactions with police communication centres as excellent very good or good. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Does the Minister in light of his comments on the Iraena Asher 111 call a fortnight ago have any concerns about the way that the call of Mrs Bentley was dealt with when she called the 111 service during a home invasion at her property near Te Puke; and if so what action will he take? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I must point out to the member that the Police Association president said—and I quote from today’s  
New Zealand Herald— 
that “the only people who had done anything wrong in this case were the two intruders” and I agree with him. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That in no way even addressed the question which was specifically about whether he had any concerns about the way Mrs Bentley’s call was dealt with and what action he would take. Quoting Mr O’Connor who has been less than flattering of the Minister on other occasions will not get him off the hook. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister can answer by quoting any other comments and in his last phrase he did address the question. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Of course I have to take your word and Mr Ryall’s word that the Minister answered the question but where I am sitting I could not hear any of the answer given partly because the Minister did not speak into his microphone but also because of the level of catcalling. I think all members are entitled to hear answers and I would like the Minister to give his answer again. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I would like to thank the member for raising that point of order. It is a very appropriate time to raise it. I am now going to tighten up on the amount of interjection I permit during answers because I think all members of Parliament including the member who is at the back of the Chamber have a perfect right to hear answers. If he could not hear the answer that then means there was too much interjection. I would like to thank the member for his point of order and I will now administer this more strictly. Mr Hawkins can repeat his answer because Mr Prebble has asked him to. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: In this morning’s  
New Zealand Herald  
dated 2 November the president of the Police Association Greg O’Connor said “the only people who had done anything wrong in this case were the two intruders” and I agree with that statement. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: Is he concerned that his administration is doing enormous damage to public confidence in police 111 emergency services; if not why not? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The police are generally doing a very good job with 111 calls. However the commissioner has called for a review because we want to improve it. The elements that show up first of all are those human elements of people making mistakes and that is not good enough. 
Marc Alexander 
: Is the Minister aware that police officers view the transferral of front-line staff to traffic duties as such a misuse of resources that they commonly refer to these colleagues as “snakes”; if not would he then consider himself as some might uncharitably suggest to be out of touch? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I have to tell that member that the road toll last October just a few days ago is the lowest it has ever been since records were kept. That shows the highway patrol speed cameras are doing the job and I support the police in that. 
Marc Alexander 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I can see no way in which the Minister addressed the question which was whether he knew that some of the police were referring to other police as “snakes”. He did not address that at all. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That was part of the member’s question. If that had been all he said the Minister would have had to address that part. He addressed other parts of his question. If a question is going to have two or three legs to it the member cannot expect them all to be answered. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have been listening very quietly to the answers of Mr Hawkins. I know that you ruled before that he addressed the last part of a question with two words at the end which were that he said he agreed with Greg O’Connor. But how can he answer a question about whether he knew the police were calling each other names which tends to show a pretty low morale within the police force by giving the House the latest road toll statistics? He did not do any more than that. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If that is all he was asked that would have been a perfectly valid point as I said before. It was not. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Minister still satisfied with the way that the Bentleys’ 111 phone call was dealt with in light of information that has been provided to the police that suggests that the 111 service did not amongst its number of errors inform the ambulance service that guns were involved in the home invasion? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I am not satisfied that the police always get it right. That is why there is a review. It is plain and simple and in that case that will be looked at. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Just answer the question. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: If Mr Smith stops yelling he will hear that the police will look at that aspect during the review. 
Ron Mark 
: What does he think the Police Association meant when it said: “We are faced with the same staffing crisis year in and year out and it all comes back to short staffing.” and does he not think the association is making a valid point and that he ought to for once listen and do something about it? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I am doing something about it. Police numbers have grown steadily and as far as communication centres go they have been increased by 18 this financial year. 
Stephen Franks 
: What does the Minister think of blocking a victim from calling willing neighbours for help and falsely claiming that the police were at the site when they were nearly an hour away and does he support a policy for 111 operators of giving reassurance whether or not it is justified? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The answer to the first part of the question is of course that it is not always wise to let people ring their neighbours when firearms are being used. As far as the rest of the question goes that will be part of the review. 
Ron Mark 
: Does the Minister not remember receiving this letter of 29 September 2002 from a southern communications centre officer addressed to him where the officer pointed out a further problem that being: “I have logged on seven highway patrols working from the Rangiora base and our instruction is that they are not to attend any events including traffic accidents.” and if he does remember receiving that letter and reading it can he tell us what he has done to ensure that strategic traffic units highway patrols excess blood/alcohol units are all available for general duties call-outs such as the two that we have heard of most disastrously in the papers of late? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: All staff who are on patrol are available to attend— 
Ron Mark 
: They are not. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: They are and of course one letter from one disillusioned constable does not say what police policy is all about but Mr Mark might believe anyone. He probably believes in Santa Claus! 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no the member is going to stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I raise this point of order in respect of the ruling that you made regarding my colleague Marc Alexander’s supplementary question. You have long ruled that Ministers are required to address questions and that you are not responsible for the quality or content of the answer. I think you may have made as it is a rod for your own back in that regard. But leaving that aside in this instance your ruling was that my colleague’s specific question was one of a number of questions contained within the question that had been put to the Minister and that essentially the Minister was not obliged to address any of them in responding. Now I think that actually takes the ruling to an extent that makes it a somewhat pointless exercise if addressing a question means that in fact someone merely has to get up and utter some words.