Hughes Darren: Policing Bill — First Reading 
Hughes Darren: Policing Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14372] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Deputy Leader of the House) 
: 
 I rise to take a brief call in support of the first reading of the Policing Bill. I think it is pretty clear from all the speeches we have heard tonight that this is important legislation but it is also showing the House at its best. I think that the bill the Minister of Police has brought before the House for debate tonight which was tabled in the last week before the House rose has been quite a good model of the way that legislation such as this which needs the broad support of political parties in Parliament plus the support of all New Zealanders obviously has been able to develop. I know that there has been a lot of consultation and development on it. Mr Dunne made the point that when a piece of law is 50 years old one questions its relevance so taking 2 years to do the consultation and listen to people to get ideas to develop the bill into its current form seems to me to have been time spent that has been well worthwhile. 
I know that the New Zealand Police has taken this rare opportunity very seriously and has provided a lot of opportunities for people in organisations that deal with the police such as Neighbourhood Support or Victim Support right through to territorial local authorities and councils that have a daily relationship with the local police in a way that local members of Parliament do not have to the same extent from a central government perspective. All those people who have such an important role to play have had their voices heard and I think that has been a very important way of building up support for this legislation. 
Nearly every speaker has mentioned what New Zealand was like 50 years ago and I take their word for it. But one thing I do know is there were only just over 2 million people living in the country then and now we have just over 4 million—4.27 million actually I am advised by Statistics New Zealand. But there has been a huge change just in the size of the police organisation from a little over 2000 staff to 10500 now and with another 1000 police on the way of course as part of the Government’s relationship with New Zealand First. So the police are playing more and more of a role in our society but in a much broader sense. 
I think all of the speeches and the consultation that has gone on—the articles that have been written—point towards the different ways that the New Zealand Police now interacts with our communities. That means that the need for reform has been very well established. The existing Act has within it very unclear responsibilities and it is overly prescriptive for the kind of age we live in now. So the bill sets out pretty clearly why the need for change is evident and the way it will then be done. I hope it will be done in a way that is open for continual change as the country evolves and develops as Mr Dunne made reference to and I am sure that when the Law and Order Committee considers the bill the committee will give it the best consideration it can. In a funny way a lot of the consultation has already been done so it will be interesting to see the kinds of things that come up specifically about the bill as it has been written. 
We all accept that we need a police force today that is much more networked and connected into the community and the law needs to be written in a way that does that in terms of the relationship with the community but also the police need this for their own internal procedures. I know that one of the things the bill changes is in the employment area. The police are moving from more of a military style of dealing with employees to a more modern employment practice. I am looking forward to the bill coming to the Law and Order Committee where hopefully we can improve what is already good legislation and maintain the multipartisan support that it has and I am sure that the New Zealand community will appreciate that. 
I will close similarly to the way that Mr Dunne started and say that the police touch all of our lives at different points both individually and also in the community work that we all do here. In my own constituency this week there was the terrible devastating air accident at Paraparaumu Airport where three young men lost their lives. A lot of responsibility fell on to the local police officers who work in our community and are from our community to deliver some pretty tough messages and also to try to get things back to order in the way that they could in that calm solid way we expect the New Zealand Police to be there and to be relied upon. So no matter what point in time we are at there is always a local example such as that where one is reminded of the work the police do. As the member for Otaki I want to record my thanks to the police for the very tragic work they have had to undertake this week. It proves that police work is a living occupation it is important to our community and legislation like this needs to be relevant to today. I support the first reading of the bill.