Davis Kelvin: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavis Kelvin: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 12 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7972. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of thePrime Minister: Yes.Kelvin Davis: Can he confirm that there are no New Zealand - born rapists and murderers on Christmas Island contrary to what he said in the House on Tuesday?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I do not necessarily agree with the member’s characterisation of it but the Prime Minister has pointed out the broader issue here around the detention of Kiwis in Australia which is that many of them have committed serious crimes. The ones who are detained have said that they do not want to come back to New Zealand.Kelvin Davis: Why did he say “We are not on the side of sex offenders; we are on the side of New Zealanders.” when the number of serious sex offences has skyrocketed by more than 1000 a year under his watch and fewer than half of those are now solved?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think the Government can point to consistent and for the first time ever very focused activity on reducing assaults on children. In fact one of our Better Public Services results is to reduce substantiated assaults on children. No Labour Government ever set out to do that.[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! If a member from the front bench wants to leave I can assist.Kelvin Davis: Are his Government’s $160 million of cuts to police funding in real per capita terms the reason that fewer than half of rapists are being caught on his watch compared with two-thirds in 2008 and does this not show his disregard for the victims of these crimes?Hon BILL ENGLISH: First the member should understand that policing is a matter for the Commissioner of Police not the Prime Minister. [Interruption] Well it is an important constitutional distinction which clearly the Labour Party does not understand. Secondly Policing Excellence and Policing Excellence to Policing Excellence: The Future the two change programmes that the police have implemented is the most intelligent community-focused and prevention-focused policing that New Zealand has ever seen. It may be true and it may be the case that reporting of domestic and sexual violence is higher. That indicates confidence that the police are increasingly able to deal with this scourge on our society. The police have the full support—and I am sure they would tell the member this—of the Government in addressing these serious issues.Kelvin Davis: Does the dramatic rise in unsolved sex crimes on his watch not show that he a hollow man who is happy to hurl insults in the House but is failing to keep Kiwis safe in their homes?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The member does himself no good by crassly overstating his case. [Interruption] It is true. The reporting of sexual crime has increased because there is more confidence that it is better understood and better dealt with. Just by way of example this Government inherited a complete shambles of Government programmes aimed at vulnerable children and family violence. In fact it took several years to find all the bits of a shambolic unpredictable set of interventions set up by the Labour Government and they should go and ask groups like the family violence prevention groups and Women’s Refuge and they will tell that member that he has no idea what he is talking about—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The answer is now going on for too long.Kelvin Davis: Has he ever said a person was suitable to be a Minister in this Government while knowing that that person was under investigation for sex offences?Mr SPEAKER: Order! No I am not going to allow that one to proceed because of a matter that is currently before the courts and I refer the member to Standing Order 115(2). I will allow the member to replace that supplementary question.Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have Kelvin Davis’s question. I have made a note of it and I have it with me. He did not refer to any specific case at all. So I just want to be clear because hypothetically—Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! Yes I accept that. Listen—I think the member is genuinely raising a point. This is a dangerous area for everybody where this Parliament as long as I am here will respect the separate jurisdiction of our judicial system. I think it is a dangerous question. I am ruling it out but I am going to replace it with an additional supplementary question for the benefit of the member and I will not entertain further discussion because that of course defeats the very purpose of Standing Order 115. Kelvin Davis.Kelvin Davis: No actually. I think the point was made—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! To the Deputy Prime Minister: I am on my feet. Question No. 8—Scott Simpson.