Andersen GinnyHon GINNY ANDERSEN (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I will do them in order if that's all right. So in relation to Mr Mitchell's questions in relation to the protest outside Parliament and actions taken in and around that I am not responsible for operational decisions that are made but I think it is important to refer to what is a very thorough investigation by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). The IPCA has confirmed—and I was pleased to see that—that police did a good job in tough and unprecedented circumstances. I'm pleased to see that their work has now been independently recognised. I'm particularly assured by that report Mr Mitchell that the police generally acted with remarkable restraint and professionalism and that all the tactics they used to defend themselves and others were justified in the circumstances. It is clear however that the response wasn't perfect. The report highlights important lessons that will assist police in managing future public-order events. Police has already begun such work and that's been recommended by the report by the IPCA and I will continue to work with the commissioner to see that that work is progressed.The IPCA also made a recommendation that the Government undertake a multi-agency review of the laws specifically governing public-order events given the deficiencies highlighted through their investigation. The Government has sought advice on what a multi-agency review would look like but we acknowledge that the outcomes of any such review would require careful consideration to ensure that that fundamental democratic right to assemble and protest is not impeded. I guess I would like to conclude by saying that the IPCA made it incredibly clear that there was no suggestion of interference from Ministers or members of Parliament and specifically at paragraph 284 of the report the IPCA stated: we reiterate that our investigation did not uncover any undue political influence at any stage of the occupation. In fact what we did find was explicit recognition of the need to respect the constitutional divide between politics and Police operations." I'd like to move on briefly to the point that Ms Henderson made in relation to some of the work that's going on specifically to address youth offenders—I think that was the question. I've been really heartened to see those programmes that are operating in both Counties Manukau and in Waitakere in the west of Auckland. I've met with our police officers who are working in that space. I appreciate that there has been some frustration in the fact that a family group conference can take some time particularly to deal with those repeat youth offenders. These programmes have proven to be a really useful circuit-breaker to identify those underlying drivers that are causing a 12- or 13-year-old to be out late and conducting these types of crimes. Because more often than not there is family violence there is sexual abuse there is mental health and there are ongoing issues within that particular whānau that will not only be impacting upon that young person but quite often their siblings. The heartening statistics I've seen is that these programmes are also looking at the other children within that family unit. That's where the real prevention opportunity lies because while it's a sad state that these young people are out committing these crimes let's use that as an opportunity to understand what is going on within that family unit to make sure that other children in the same family do not end up in the same position. And that's what I'm really keen in driving. And the other member's question was I think: do I believe statistics? The answer would be I do. Yes."