Clendon DavidDAVID CLENDON (Green): E Te Heamana o Te Komiti tēnā koe ngā mihi o te pō ki a koutou.[Thank you Mr Chairman and compliments of the evening to you collectively.] I would just like to begin my brief contribution by acknowledging the Minister's obvious enthusiasm and sharing her pleasure at the success of restorative justice approaches in our justice system. Restorative justice as a principle underpinning justice is something the Greens have been advocating for to my sure knowledge since about 1993 so we are delighted that the Government has caught up on that. One other point the Minister of Justice made in her contribution was the fact that the new justice sector will support the creation and success of small business in her community in Christchurch. Unfortunately in Northland we have exactly the opposite problem. We have small businesses closing down because our rural police in the north are so under-resourced so stretched that they are unable to keep up with spates of burglaries. They are unable to patrol sufficiently to discourage the burglars. There are numerous small businesses in Kaikohe Kaitāia Ōkaihau that have closed or are in the process of closing because of this Government's very—dare I say it—parsimonious approach to funding properly resourcing our police force. Indeed that has been a theme of this entire Budget. It is very well represented in the suite of Estimates we are debating under the general heading of the Justice Sector. Trying to save a dollar now but either not knowing or simply not being willing to confess that the short-term savings will result in long-term costs—you are simply moving a cost from today to tomorrow. You are relocating the costs—economic savings resulting in measurable social costs for our communities—and that is a very unfortunate thing. Anyone who pays any attention at all to the legal fraternity to the judiciary and their commentary over the last year or two will be very aware that there is a serious concern about the cost of access to justice. The cost of accessing our legal system is now such that more and more people simply cannot get the justice they would otherwise deserve. One example of that is the relentless cutting of legal aid. The Minister at the Justice and Electoral Committee rather proudly told us that the income threshold for civil legal aid had been raised 6.5 percent over the previous year. Well that still means that a person working 30 hours a week on the minimum wage is earning too much to be eligible for legal aid. That is an appalling indictment on the failure to acknowledge that there is insufficient money in many people's pockets to get them access to the court system in order for them to get justice. The Minister recommended resorting to the community law centres. I visit the community law centres around the country and engage with them. They are full of hard-working dedicated people going way beyond the pale but they are still unable to keep up with the demand because the funding simply is not there for them. The police have done an excellent job over recent years in terms of finding productivity increases. They are using mobile technology very well and wisely. They have managed to deliver a service as effectively I believe as anybody could. The increase in their budget this year was some 2.8 percent much of which will be consumed in a seriously overdue pay rise that will really only be a catch up. They are still arguably below the rates that they ought to be on for the very difficult and demanding work that the police do. Just as an aside can I take a moment just to acknowledge the reappointment of Commissioner Mike Bush to his role. I think that is a good decision by the Minister and I congratulate the commissioner on that. But sadly Mr Bush is leading an organisation that is stretched to breaking point and we have seen that. The police are constantly told they must prioritise domestic violence child safety community safety burglaries and 101 other things. With the best will in the world they simply cannot be everywhere at once and we are seeing that in our cities. In Auckland—there were some numbers produced that the committee—I think five new officers were added to the total strength of the Auckland police in a time when the population has gone up in excess of 100000. That is an unsustainable position.