O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): Before I go into my primary speech can I acknowledge the manuhiri who are gathered here today—tēnā koutou katoa ngā mihi nui ki a koutou e te Whare Pāremata ināianei. Hoki mai and haere mai to the Hon Marama Fox and I see also the Hon Rick Barker so haere mai—welcome. Can I also follow in the footsteps of the previous speaker Tangi Utikere and acknowledge our top scholars. Two—I might up the ante here—two from Glendowie College: Damon and Joshua. Very very proud of you both. But now to turn back on to the Government after bouquets so to speak. On Friday—not Friday Monday oh the days blend. On Monday night hundreds of locals in my electorate of Tāmaki gathered to talk about crime and safety in the community. It'll be no surprise regardless of my electorate or across New Zealand the grave and strong concerns people have about the ongoing crime. I have almost—almost—lost count of the number of ram raids alone in my electorate having visited over 25 businesses in recent months. That's 25 businesses in my electorate alone ram raided. That is on top of the myriad of cars stolen antisocial behaviour assaults—particularly of our young people and the list goes on. But people gathered together along with our police commanders and councillors on Monday night to discuss how we move forward.One of the things that was very striking was actually the support of our policemen and -women on the front line. I'd have to report to this House because I am an honest man believe it or not the police got more claps than I did. Maybe that isn't a surprise to people but actually they were being well thanked. But the point being the anger and the frustration of my community was with a Labour Government that has been soft on crime; that has ignored the crisis in front of us—a Government in fact that tells us they reject the premise of the very question that there's a problem of crime. So it's a rhetorical invitation at this time but the Prime Minister and the Minister of Police are very welcome to come to my electorate and to meet my people who want to say to them that they want the Government to take this seriously. They want to see more resourcing for police they want to see more patrols and they want to see more focus on truancy when hundreds of our young people are not attending school. They want fewer excuses from a Government that sees every person as a victim and not an opportunity and that in particular was a focus on our young people. They want the young people to be given hope not a path towards the gangs. And in fact as one person pointed out they want to see fewer Government Ministers having a chat with gang members. They want actually the Government of the day to talk to young people and give them hope and inspiration. They want more support for our businesses. They want bollards; fog cannons; cameras; and as I said earlier more patrols. These are just some of the points of feedback. But the last point that came up and well just by pure coincidence of course fits—one of my portfolios is corrections. They are sick and tired of a failing corrections system. They are tired of a Government which is appropriating basically a catch and release approach. The Government trumpets almost 4000 fewer people in our prisons. Well that would be all well and good if those men and women who have been in our prisons were given proper rehabilitation. But do you know what the Government has spent more money in corrections but is actually offering fewer rehabilitation slots and processes. This is a failure of public spending and it is a failure of a duty of care to those men and women in our prison that deserve a second chance a third chance and even fourth and fifth chances. They are catching and releasing them. And I hear laughter from the other side as if it's funny. Recidivism rates are just as bad now as they have been in years past. They're letting more prisoners out with less rehabilitation and recidivism rates are as bad as they've always been. We're seeing more money as I said being spent. On top of all of that we've now found out that since 2017 the Department of Corrections get this has doubled the number of its back-room staff—doubled the number—a 50 percent increase to be completely accurate but only a 16 percent increase of people on the front line. And if you're talking to corrections officers like I am there's low morale; they're frustrated. And yet there's more people working in the back office. It's completely and utterly a shambles. Spending more money more back-end staff and more reports on strategies—could probably point a stick at God knows how many of those. Yet as I say more prisoners being let out delivering fewer rehabilitations very little improvement to recidivism no implementation of the strategies—don't even get me started on that—and ignoring the needs of prisoners and staff. It's an utter shambles and this Government is responsible.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.