Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister of Police): Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm going to concentrate my speech on delivery but first off I just want to talk about the delivery of a certain member across the other side of the House in his question time today which you know I like Mr Mitchell he's a very personable man. You know he's got great personality. It's unfortunate that he can't add up to three. And I just want to help him because you know a couple of Sundays ago I delivered a pre-Budget announcement that was $562 million—that's a little bit more than three; it's quite a lot to count up Mr Mitchell but I can help you out with this. That was a record investment in police. We have delivered 35 percent more funding in our time in Government than those guys. We've delivered 16 percent more cops on our side than those guys did. And all of that with us adding funding to make sure we've got $94 million not just to deal with gangs but to supress and enforce and also to deal with those young people that we can divert out of the gang culture in the first place. We are delivering for New Zealand. I want to just say that is a stark contrast to the National Party when they were in Government. Let's just have a look at their record on investment in police and what that meant. June 2010 they had 8768 cops. By the following year they had lost—they had lost—70 cops. Oh my gosh! The following year—the following year—they had 9000 police and then June 2013 they've got 8711. And—get this—in August of 2016 the then Minister of Police Judith Collins said of her 8898 police We need more cops." Do you know what she did? The following year she lost another 60 police out of the police force. Now those numbers don't lie. You cannot do more with less. We have invested in this police—not only to make sure we increase their numbers. We keep them safer. We've invested in a gun register to keep our communities safer. We've invested in programmes that help our young people stay out of criminal activity—unlike those people who with their tax cuts will go back to the way they've always been—Hon Mark Mitchell: More ram raids.Hon POTO WILLIAMS: —funding cuts for the police. Now Mr Mitchell says "ram raids". Now I have got one question for him that nobody has asked him: what would National do? What would National—[Interruption] Just a moment my friends. Let's listen to it: absolute silence that's right. It's intense isn't it Mr Mitchell? It's intense because National would do nothing because their record shows that they are hopeless—hopeless. They freeze budgets and they cut police numbers. They are absolutely hopeless. Next week alongside police and the work that has been done with the national crime unit and Retail NZ we will announce our delivery to the businesses of New Zealand about how we support them about ram raids. And what will National do? They will do nothing. They will sit on their hands and they will criticise this Government when this Government is all about the delivery.Hon Mark Mitchell: Consequences. That's what we'll do: consequences. Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Now here he is he's barking over there—a personable man; he's really nice but he has the odd bark—but will he commit to the one thing that will give me some confidence that he will be effective in police the one thing that Chris Cahill has challenged him to do? Will he commit to it—commit to the population ratio? Will you commit to that Mr Mitchell? Will you commit to that Mr Bayly? Because it means funding and if we look at past performance of the National Party and the National Government there will be no funding. No no. The National Party will not support the ratio. [Multiple interjections] Oh he's saying yes. Well he'd better ask his boss because his boss is delivering tax cuts my friend and tax cuts mean cuts to Public Service. It means you cannot deliver—you cannot deliver. Not like the Labour Party. Do you know what? We're going to have more cops. They're going to be better trained there's going to be better intel better deployment and I'm grateful that I have been able to deliver a record—get this—$562 million and that member cannot even count up to three."