Goudie Sandra: Policing Bill — In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Policing Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:17881] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I am delighted to speak on Part 2 of the Policing Bill and to give my wholehearted support to the police. They do an excellent job and of course we do want to prevent victims—that is why we want our police on the front line. This part of the bill talks about organisation and governance. We want to see police on the front line and not being consumed with lots of paperwork form-filling and bureaucracy. We do not want to see office employees growing at the rate of knots which has happened in a lot of other Government departments. We really do not want to see that replicated amongst our police force. We want them out there at the front line. 
On many occasions I have offered my own services to help them out there. I am more than happy to do any surveillance necessary in any of these P operations in order to try to prevent any further criminal activity. I think all responsible New Zealanders would be prepared to do the same. They are not prepared to tolerate the P epidemic that exists in our communities and they want to protect our young people and support them in going forward. I totally support the police. 
We have a shortage of front-line police in the Whitianga and Coromandel township areas and it would be great to see the additional personnel necessary to address that shortage. We have even gone so far as to offer cheaper accommodation and other services facilities and supports to encourage people to come and police either in the Coromandel township or in Whitianga. Ideally we would love to have three police personnel in Coromandel and we would love a full complement of police in Whitianga. So if any police are listening to me tonight I ask them to please rock up and consider applying for the job. That person will get our full support. The community will back that person provide some facilities and services and help him or her to settle into what is a very very good community. It is just that we would like a much stronger police presence there. The officers in the wider district do a fantastic job but we want to see a few more police there to support them in doing that job. 
As I said Part 2 deals with organisation and governance. The principles have been espoused already and they are very good principles. I would like to endorse the comments that Ron Mark made about the responsibilities and the independence of the Commissioner of Police. I think that that cannot be understated in any way. It is absolutely essential that the independence of the commissioner is very strong and is seen very clearly from the public’s point of view. I think that that independence is a critical part of the commissioner’s role. It is something that a lot of people have expressed concerns about whether or not they actually made a submission. I think a lot of people have made submissions to their own local members of Parliament and have not necessarily gone through the submission process of Parliament. So it is incumbent upon us to share those concerns as a part of speaking to the Policing Bill and I do so and I acknowledge Ron Mark for also doing that. 
What else can I talk about in terms of the functions of the police? Well I am delighted that we have a lot of community support for the police in the form of community patrols. I had the privilege of going out with them one night and I know that a number of my colleagues have also taken the opportunity to understand what community patrols do and at the same time understand the difficulties the police face when they undertake their role—particularly at night when people are just rolling out of the pubs or indulging in other activities. 
When people are stopped for questioning at such times the police never really know what they will confront particularly if those people have been on P. One has only to look at that Antonie Dixon character who was apprehended in the Coromandel area at Pipiroa. He was absolutely wild. He was the sword-wielding and hand-chopping individual. The police never know whether the person they confront will be in the wild manic state that Mr Dixon was obviously in at the time he carried out the offence. 
On that basis communities play a good role in supporting the police in what they do. Community patrols are fantastic. They do a very good job and a lot of them have a very strong membership that helps them to undertake that role. It is all about just working in with the police and supporting them in that job and not trying to take over any of the more serious aspects of that control.