12. Question No. 12—PoliceNICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 12—PoliceNICOLE McKEE (ACT): My question is to the Minister of Police. Can she confirm that since October 2017 the number of gang members on the national gangs list has increased by 2264 and the number of police staff investigating organised crime has increased by only 239?SPEAKER: Order! The member will now read the question as it is written down.NICOLE McKEE: Apologies Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Well the member's a bit lucky.12. NICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of Police: Can she confirm that since October 2017 the number of gang members on the national gang list has increased by 2264 and the number of police staff investigating organised crime has increased by 239?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Justice) on behalf of the Minister of Police: The Government has invested $450 million in the police since we came to office and an additional 700 police staff will be focused on tackling organised crime by 2023. This has led to improvements in police data which has shown the growth in the national gang police list that the member speaks of. As a result of this Government investment the total police workforce is the largest it has been ever surpassing 14000. The police work every day to keep New Zealanders safe and they work every day to disrupt gang activity and we are proud of the work that they do.SPEAKER: Order! The member will now actually give us something which approximates an answer to the question.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well Mr Speaker as I said the police data has improved to show the growth of the national gang list that the member speaks of.Nicole McKee: How many new staff dedicated to investigating organised crime do police intend to hire and by what date?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: As I said in my initial answer 700 by 2023.Nicole McKee: Can the Minister also confirm that 12 gang members on the national gang list hold a current firearms licence up from the 11 acknowledged in August last year?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I can confirm that. It is an operational issue as to whether the police will take any action against them. I would note that as the legislation currently stands those on the national gang list can have their firearms licence removed if the police believe they are not a fit and proper person and associated with a gang. That is a piece of legislation the ACT Party voted against.Hon Stuart Nash: Is it true that under the previous term of this Government we took over 60000 rifles out of our community that were primarily designed to kill people and not hunt deer possums rabbits or tahr?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I can confirm that and that has led to New Zealanders being safer as a result of that change of legislation.Nicole McKee: Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table the answer to written question No. 343 which has not yet been published—SPEAKER: No. Don't go on—don't go on. I think I'll in this case accept the fact that the member is a relatively new member but if she seeks advice from her leader or other experienced members in the House she will be told that she cannot table published written answers.Nicole McKee: Point of order Mr Speaker. If I may this written question has not been published yet; it has only just been released and Standing Order—SPEAKER: Right can I make a suggestion that in future if the member asks she says unpublished" in front of it then that makes it clear. [Interruption]Nicole McKee: Thank you Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Order! David Bennett will stand withdraw and apologise.Hon David Bennett: I withdraw and apologise.Nicole McKee: Mr Speaker sorry does that mean I have leave to table that? SPEAKER: Not quite. I'll get the member to just finish saying it again. Nicole McKee: I seek leave to table the unpublished answer to written question No. 343 which has not yet been published on the Parliament website.SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.David Seymour: Point of order. Mr Speaker can I ask why you assumed that the member was seeking to table a published written question?SPEAKER: The member will resume his seat. It was an error on my part and I apologise.Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. This does raise a wider issue. The reason that question answers are not published immediately is so that the members opposite have the opportunity to read those answers before they're available to the general public. If this was to become a habit where members continued to seek leave to table answers that have not yet been published we could easily fix that system by making them instantly publishable when the Minister has lodged them. It would mean that the members would not have access to them before the public but if this is going to become a trend in the House the Government would certainly support moves to make them published immediately.David Seymour: Speaking to the point of order—SPEAKER: No. First of all I'm going to deal with the person who interjected while Mr Hipkins was speaking. Who was it? It was either Dr Smith or Mr Doocey.Hon Michael Woodhouse: Mr Speaker there was an exchange between Dr Smith and myself but it wasn't in the nature of an interjection.SPEAKER: Why was he saying "No" to you?Hon Michael Woodhouse: Because we were having a conversation.SPEAKER: All right. Back to Mr Seymour.David Seymour: Speaking to the Leader of the House's point of order previous Speakers—I think it may have been Carter—have explicitly ruled that unpublished written questions can be tabled. It's the intention of previous Speakers that members can do precisely what Nicole McKee has just done and I don't know why the Leader of the House is relitigating it.Hon Chris Hipkins: Mr Speaker I seek leave for the rules of the Parliament the Standing Orders to be amended for this session of Parliament so that written parliamentary question answers are published immediately when they are lodged by the Ministers responsible for them.SPEAKER: Giving a warning that if leave is agreed to it might just take a little bit of work to change the computing system in order for that to be able to happen.Hon Member: Speaking to the point of order Mr Speaker—SPEAKER: No we've got leave being sought. So at this point I am going to put that leave. Is there any objection? There is objection.Hon Member: Point of order.SPEAKER: No. We've now dealt with that matter. Nicole McKee still has supplementary questions. Chris Bishop: Point of order. I seek leave for the issue that the Leader of the House just put around the issue of unpublished written questions being immediately uploaded to the parliamentary website to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for further consideration.SPEAKER: Well the member can do a letter to that. He doesn't need a parliamentary thing but we can do that. Is there any objection to that? There is objection.Nicole McKee: Thank you Mr Speaker. Under what circumstances is it appropriate—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Well ACT just got another supplementary. Thank you my teammate from Coast to Coast!Nicole McKee: Under what circumstances is it appropriate for a gang member to hold a firearms licence?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: On behalf of the Minister that is a judgment for the police to make as to whether they are a fit and proper person.Nicole McKee: So is the Minister concerned about the increase in gang numbers and the number of gang members that actually hold a firearms licence and if so what policies does the Minister plan to introduce to respond to these issues?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: On behalf of the Minister we are very concerned about making sure that New Zealanders stay safe which is why we passed legislation that took 60000 dangerous prohibited guns off the streets last year. There is the ability as I've mentioned to the member within current legislation for people who are on the gang register to have their firearms licence removed if the police believe they are not a fit and proper person. Again I would stress that is a piece of legislation the ACT Party did not support.David Seymour: What does it say about this Government's policies and the legislation they ask us to support that the number of gang members with firearms licences is going up even as the Government takes 60000 firearms off law-abiding firearms owners who have done nothing wrong?Hon Stuart Nash: Supplementary?SPEAKER: You're not the Minister any more.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We are absolutely proud of the focus that we've had on this side of the House to tackle organised crime. We have increased the number of police and currently I am at the Royal New Zealand Police College congratulating Wing 343 who are graduating this afternoon.Hon Stuart Nash: Is it true that the ACT Party was the only party that did not vote to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons?SPEAKER: The member has also been around here for a long time and he knows that this Minister has no responsibility for that.Hon Member: Supplementary?SPEAKER: No. The member's used them already and the member knows it. That concludes oral questions."