Nash Stuart; Dyson RuthHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. So negative—it's so negative. Now let me tell you about what delivery looks like. Let me give a little bit of background. So 2017 was an interesting election in terms of law and order because instead of the parties going on about who could be hardest on crime it was actually about who could deliver more police in our communities—it was quite proactive it was pretty good. So it started with the then National Government. They said they would deliver 880 police over four years. Then Labour came along and said No we can up that. We'll deliver a thousand police over three years." But let's give credit where credit's due: thanks to New Zealand First and this coalition Government we got really aspirational around police. We said 1800 police over three years—1800 police over three years.Now let me give the House a little bit of a background to how we got here. Minister Ron Mark and I used to go on about this a lot in Opposition. So there was a workplace survey—every two years the police fill in a workplace survey—and it captures the mood and the feeling and what's going on in police. In that 2017 workplace survey only 40 percent of respondents—40 percent—said they were delivering on the promises they made to our communities. Sixty percent of officers said they weren't delivering. Also 60 percent of officers said they had an undue level of workplace stress. But on the opposite side you had over 80 percent of respondents say that they were committed to the communities they serve and committed to the New Zealand police service.So what you had was a group of really good men and women who knew what needed to be done but just didn't have the resources to do it. So we decided "We've got to change this around." because I completely back the men and women who put their lives on the line 24/7 to keep us safe. And I will admit it does disappoint me every time I hear politicians criticise police—because police can't speak back and police will be there straight away if they're in trouble. So what we did is we started putting police into the community. Remember the Nats wanted 880? We did that in two years. They wanted to do it in four years; we did it in two years.The last graduating wing—the last wing—which was last week represented 2000 more police that are now out in our communities keeping us safe fighting drug harm and preventing crime. That is an astounding figure. And I have been to every single one of these graduations except one—so to 29 graduations—and I have seen the profile of the men and women who are entering our police service and it is outstandingly good. Men and women who have got qualifications who have represented their province and our country in sport and culture and the average age—so people tend to think of young grads "Oh they're just out of school." Very rarely is there an 18-year-old there. The average age I would say would be mid-20s early 30s. So they bring in a whole lot of life experience as well. And they are keen. They are really making a difference.But how did we end up here—how did we end up here? According to Jarrod Gilbert who is a criminologist at University of Canterbury the Australian gangs arrived in New Zealand about 2008. By 2011 they were well established and the Rebels were the gangs that arrived first—well established. After that became known—2011—police numbers dropped by 150. In the last five years of the previous Government police numbers actually dropped and during that time the gangs became sophisticated they became organised they became violent and they were transnational primarily driven by the 501s—these are the returning deportees from Australia. As a consequence of that our ethnic gangs started patching up. And so what we're seeing at the moment is the Mongrel Mob—predominately the Mongrel Mob—but the Black Power patching up in a way they have never done before and the Australian gangs going really hard. So we have a dynamic here which is not good at all.But again according to Jarrod Gilbert—so don't believe me but this is true—the police do a really good job of policing. They do a fantastic job of preventing crime and solving crime. But what we need is an all-of-Government approach and that is what this Government is taking: an all-of-Government approach. Police are leading it because they see the hard side they see the hard edge of crime every single day. But we've got education we've got housing we've got Oranga Tamariki we've got Work and Income New Zealand we've got a whole lot of agencies coming together to say "How do we solve this? How do we work together to create safer communities?"But we also understand that we've got to go after the bad guys. We've got to make sure that we take down these gangs. So we're taking a slightly different approach. As well as you know dealing with the yobbos on the ground who are antisocial and do terrible things to their women and you see on the news we're going after the money—we're going after the money. In fact last year 2019 police seized over $100 million in assets and cash associated with the proceeds of crime. It's not just the men with the patches on the back—they may be the public face of what we see and they may be what the news media like to focus on—but it's also your lawyers it's also your accountants; the white-collar crime. These people are just as insidious and just as bad as the guys with the patches on their back.In fact not last Monday but the Monday before the police made an announcement—and we backed them up—that they'd arrested 10 people who they believe are responsible for importing over a tonne of drugs into this country in the last three years. Not one of them was a gang member but the harm that they created to our communities was immense. So this is police working with Customs to fight drug crime.What we've seen so far according to our waste-water testing is that meth usage has dropped by 17 percent. Our seizures last year were 1.6 tonnes of meth. Now you can't do that with a police force that is stressed and can't deliver on the promises that they make; you can only do this when you have a well-resourced police service.Let me give you again a local example in my area Eastern District. So the district commander a woman called Superintendent Tānia Kura who I think is absolutely fantastic and gets this has set up a gang focus unit. She admits that the only way she could set up this gang focus unit is with the extra police she has been given. In the seven months that this gang focus unit has been operational they've made over a hundred arrests over a hundred charges have been laid millions of dollars have been seized and gangs are being stopped.Now this isn't going to happen overnight—it isn't going to happen overnight. We've still got a lot more police to deliver into our districts—a lot more police. But what we have started here—what we have started here—thanks to this coalition Government is a rebuilding of our police service into a body of men and women who have the resources to go incredibly hard against these gangs and against organised crime.When we turned up here into Government the police service did not have those resources; they have them now. In fact the next graduation in March of this year will be the first time in the history of the New Zealand police service where there will be over 10000 sworn officers—over 10000 sworn officers.Now the game is changing. Gangs are becoming more sophisticated. Crime is becoming more complex. But it just didn't work under the previous Government when they said to the Commissioner of Police "You must do more with less." And he drove efficiency. He drove culture change. In fact the Debbie Francis report on bullying that's just come out this week said that police are about 95 percent there compared to where they were when Dame Margaret Bazley wrote her first report; they've got about 5 percent to go. The commissioner is committed to delivering on every single recommendation that Debbie Francis put in her report on police bullying and the culture.So there's a little way to go. We know that. There's a long way to go in terms of getting on top of the gang problem but we've started in a way that I believe is really making a difference. It's not just about going after the men and women; it's about going after the money.The other thing I would say that is really disappointing is that there is a piece of legislation—the Arms Legislation Bill—before this House and what it does is say that no gang member will have a firearms licence. The other thing it says is that we are going to significantly increase the penalties for gun crime because we know this is increasing as well. For a reason that I just cannot fathom the National Opposition is not voting for this bill.Matt Doocey: We're not the only ones Mr Mitchell are we?Hon STUART NASH: We have a chance to work—oh no you're right; David Seymour isn't voting for it either—together to significantly increase penalties for gun crime and to take the guns off gangs and to go really hard against the gangs but the Nats aren't supporting it—and I don't know why because this is what we all want. In my communities we want it.So just to sum up we have made a fantastic start to rebuilding our New Zealand police service into an organisation that is fighting gangs and gun crime and keeping our communities safe.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): The next call's a split call. I call Nicola Willis."