12. Question No. 12—PoliceHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 12—Police12. Hon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of Police: Does she stand by her statement It is my view that New Zealanders feel safer"; if so why?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN (Minister of Police): For those in the back I stand by my full statement at the time it was given that it is my view that New Zealanders feel safer with a Government on track to deliver 1800 extra police. As that member is aware we have now delivered on that commitment. I further stand by my commitments today that the best way to disrupt gang activity and the harm it causes is by resourcing the police and giving them the proper legislative tools to ensure they can effectively hold offenders to account not knee-jerk headline-grabbing slogans.Hon Mark Mitchell: Yeah like weak legislation. Does—SPEAKER: Was that your question?Hon Mark Mitchell: No.SPEAKER: Hmm yeah be careful.Hon Mark Mitchell: Why does the Minister think that Kiwis feel safer when there have been five homicides in 17 days as a result of gang and gun violence?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: The firearms offences of the past few weeks have been incredibly concerning—in particular the gang violence we have seen within our communities. However the data does demonstrate that these are isolated events and not indicative of a broader trend. And if we go back through August over the past four years the numbers are 10 15 seven and 14. This Government is doing more to reduce the harm caused by firearms than any other previous Government including the banning of semi-automatic weapons in the wake of March 15th buying back more than 60000 guns introducing firearm prohibition orders as well as establishing New Zealand's first digital firearms register. If that member was truly worried about the danger of firearms he'd talk to Christopher Luxon and convince him to make keeping it a bottom line for National. But he hasn't and he won't keep that promise to front-line police.Hon Mark Mitchell: Can the Minister confirm that over 50 percent of Operation Cobalt charges relate to traffic infringement and admin offences?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: I'm more than happy to provide a breakdown. Those 45000 charges are varied as well as the nearly 500 firearms seized that were illegally held by gang members. We continue to resource Operation Cobalt and I'm incredibly surprised that that member does not support such an effective operation that cracks down on gangs.Hon Mark Mitchell: Point of order Mr Speaker. It was a very specific question around the Cobalt charges. The Minister said she was very happy to give us a breakdown of them and then she didn't give us a breakdown of them.SPEAKER: But she did address the question.Hon Mark Mitchell: Does the Minister think Kiwis feel safer when ram raids have increased to two a day?Hon GINNY ANDERSEN: I am not happy with the rate of ram raids but it has been pleasing to see over the past two months that they have continued to decrease and the figures for this month have decreased again from end year. This is a result of police working closely with groups such as Oranga Tamariki and really effective programmes like Kotahi te Whakaaro and Circuit Breaker that roughly see that about 82 percent of young people who go through those programmes do not reoffend. That's in stark contrast to that member's policy of boot camps which sees 80 percent of those people who go through the programmes going on to offend."