9. Question No. 9—PoliceNICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 9—Police9. NICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of Police: Does she agree with the Prime Minister who told Stephen Colbert We had a buy-back scheme. People had legitimately and legally gone out and purchased these weapons and we changed the laws. So in fairness we said that we will buy them back and then we will destroy them. And so that is what we did"?Hon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister of Police): Yes.Nicole McKee: Does she believe that the Government's gun legislation and buy-back has been a success and if it has why did the number of violent gun crimes increase by 47 percent between 2018 and 2021?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: The buy-back—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry to interrupt. In so far as that question relates to the primary you can answer.Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Thank you Mr Speaker. The buy-back was necessary to remove high-powered semi-automatics from our community in a very tragic time and we removed 60000 prohibited weapons through the process. Police are taking action across a range of issues that are confronting our communities at the moment and that's why the armed offenders squad have been deployed across Auckland currently to conduct search warrants and make arrests.Nicole McKee: How can she say the Government's gun legislation and buy-back has been a success when there are daily shootings in Auckland and people are living in fear?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: The purpose of the buy-back was because the Government and the vast majority of New Zealanders recognise that there is no place in our communities for high-powered semi-automatic firearms. When it comes to dealing with the use of firearms by gangs and those who would do us harm the Police launched their Operation Tauwhiro which has taken 1600 firearms off gang members and since 2019 police have seized 10000 firearms.Nicole McKee: Does she stand by her statement that Aucklanders should absolutely expect a fall in gun crime and when will that fall in gun crime begin?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: I do absolutely because of the work that this Government is doing. The Government was first advised to implement a firearms register for example in 1997—a 30-year deficit of information when it comes to the number of firearms in our communities which means that we are unsafe. A firearms register will ensure that imported firearms which are distributed to dealers and licence owners will be able to be tracked via their serial number. This Government has had a record investment in their police ensuring that we've invested $200000 into the firearms register $185 million into front-line safety and $94 million to crack down on gangs and to keep our young people out of gangs in the first place.David Seymour: Point of order. That was very clearly a question about the outcomes and whether the Minister stood by her statement saying that people would get better results with the Government's policies. Now the Minister has talked about a whole lot of inputs and expenditures and initiatives but she hasn't given anything like an address to the question about when any of it will actually work which is what the question was about and what frankly people want.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah I have a different opinion. I think the information given did actually address the supplementary as it related to the primary question.Hon Stuart Nash: Is it true that before the Labour Government changed the firearms Act to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons anyone with the right licence could purchase the guns used by the Christchurch terrorist to kill 51 people and now these weapons are illegal and the penalties for possessing these are harsh?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Yes I do agree with that. It is the very least we could have done for our Muslim community our community of Christchurch and the people of New Zealand.Nicole McKee: What does she think victims of gun crime will make of the fact that the Prime Minister has been on American talk shows and at universities talking about how good her Government's gun laws are meanwhile there has been shooting after shooting back here in Auckland?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: I think they would applaud the fact that this Prime Minister has presided over a record investment in our police: $562 million to keep our communities safer to keep our front-line staff safer and an investment into ensuring that we remove gangs from our communities. I stand by that and I applaud our Prime Minister and the work that she has been doing overseas."