Andersen GinnyGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour—Hutt South): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Thanks very much Madam Speaker. I'd like to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about a fantastic announcement that was made on Sunday that has provided record investment in the justice sector for law and order in New Zealand. The investment announced last Sunday delivers a police force that is the biggest New Zealand has ever seen and continues investment in the police after the goal of an additional 1800 police will be achieved by the end of the year. That's six months ahead of where we were scheduled to be. Extra funding is set aside to grow police to match population growth which in the past hasn't been kept up with in previous Governments. This will ensure that there is at least one police officer for every 480 New Zealanders. In addition to this there's another $94 million specifically targeted for gangs and organised crime funding to support businesses to protect from ram raids and also targeting gun crime with the establishment of a new firearms unit within police.We've also increased safety to front-line police with a nationwide roll-out of the tactical response model with the training of police officers up to Armed Offenders Squad standard. Breaking the cycle of reoffending is just as important as investing in front-line capability and that's exactly why there's a $193 million investment to break the cycle of offending in New Zealand and funding on top of this for an additional 518 extra Corrections staff to support rehabilitation. Now I want to go back a little bit to 2016 to when the Minister of Police Judith Collins stated that there were not enough police to respond to retail crime. There were a couple of dine-and-dash incidents I recall and the Government she admitted had not kept up with the modest goal of one police officer to 500. Now this Government under Minister Poto Williams has delivered and will deliver 480 people per police officer. And the response we've had from those opposite in particular Mark Mitchell who has mentioned that that's a knee-jerk reaction—that additional funding and more police on the front line won't help the problem go away. His answer to the problem is greater consequences for criminals and also greater powers for police. But we know for a fact—we know for a fact on this side of the House—that you can't arrest your way out of a problem; you have to be a little bit smarter than that. And sadly that's where Mr Mitchell falls down. That number that we're forgetting is what happened under the last Government in terms of getting tough and giving police more powers—that Government was torn straight down the middle when it came to firearm prohibition orders and that's exactly why that piece of legislation was never delivered upon in nine years. That Government was split right down the middle between Paula Bennett and I think Judith Collins who wanted to have warrantless causeless searches—and then on the other side Amy Adams who kind of knew that we had a New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and that it wasn't so cool. Then I remember it sort of all came to a head when we had Paula Bennett then as the Minister of Police saying that some people have more rights than others. I think that quite aptly sums up the position of the National Party on just about everything to be frank. That is why it's important we stick to facts and not fiction and that's why I'd like to conclude by talking about a few facts that are important to remember—and that's in the past 10 years what our youth justice figures have done—a 61 percent reduction in the number of children going to a family group conference or in court action. That's 2900 fewer children offending and that's 8500 fewer 14- to 16-year-olds offending. That's a fact. Youth crime has decreased. And the response once again we've had from that member opposite from Mr Mitchell is that he called it fake news. That was the response in general. I'm going to quote Oh look I was going to say 'Don't be fooled by these stats. Youth crime is not trending down. Any Kiwi that applies the common-sense rule' "—not sure what that is—" 'knows that because they hear and see what's happening every day the reality is that this Government has found different ways of capturing stats.' " Fake news is what we get from the other side. So to wrap up I'd like to say that I am proud of what this Government is delivering for New Zealand communities to keep them safer. The real truth is that a bunch of anecdotal war stories does not add up to a strategy that actually reduces the drivers of crime in our communities. Cutting funding and increasing police powers is not a strategy. This Government knows that we can't arrest our way out of a problem and we are working to deliver on those underlying drivers of crime. And I'm proud of what's being done. Thank you Madam Speaker."