Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Speaker. This has been a very good Budget for the coalition Government. I might be a bit biased but I'd like to say that New Zealand First has had some very very good serious wins out of this Budget.We've just previously heard my colleague Clayton Mitchell list a few; I'd like to list a couple as well. These wins focus not only on the regions though we did make some good wins in the regions but we are focusing on our services we're focusing on our seniors our vulnerable children as well and everyone in between I must say. We've put a billion dollars for KiwiRail. We've got over a billion dollars for Oranga Tamariki with our vulnerable children. We've got over $2 billion for our defence force—our underfunded defence force that was neglected under the National Party—all of the three services: the navy the air force and of course the army as well.We've invested $7 million into a super SuperGold Card. We have—as my colleague Clayton Mitchell said—managed to secure funding for our ambulance services and St John's over the next couple of years; over $4 million for veterans and around $60 million for our forestry sector. So you can see that we have wide-ranging and effective and very serious wins on this side of the House.But one thing that hasn't been mentioned which I think is ultimately important as well is the increase in funding to our police force. The reason why I want to mention it is because last week we had Chris Bishop stand up in the House and unbelievably criticise this side of the House for increasing the police numbers—that's what he did. So New Zealand First as part of our coalition agreement is to strive for 1800 new police officers over the next four years—Hon Dr Nick Smith: And you've done 450.DARROCH BALL: —1800 over the next four years. We've got the likes of Chris Bishop but now we've got Dr Nick Smith as well talking about that we've only got around 500 so far. Well over the nine years that that National Party was in Government how many did they add to the police force?Hon Dr Nick Smith: Hundreds.DARROCH BALL: One-hundred-and-fifty Mr Smith 150. So now they're complaining that 18 months in we've got 500 and climbing. That's net by the way—that's net by the way. Over nine years Dr Nick Smith's Government only had 150. In fact in 2017 they went down by 60. They lost police officers. The year before that they lost another 40. And now they stand up in the House and want to criticise us for striving for 1800 police officers.I'll tell you why that's important—I tell you why it's important because there's what's called a golden ratio of one police officer per 500 members of public. If it goes above that—if there's more members of public per police officer then it makes it very very difficult for our police force to do the job effectively. In 2009 when the National Government took over that was one police officer for every 498 members of public—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just relate it to the Budget.DARROCH BALL: Well I'm talking about the increase—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just keep it focused on the Budget not on history.DARROCH BALL: I'm talking about the increase in police numbers—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don't argue with me or I'll stop the member. Relate it to the Budget.DARROCH BALL: In 2009 we had one police officer for every 498 members; in 2017 that went from one police officer—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Relate it to the Budget now.DARROCH BALL: —to every 547 members of public Madam Speaker. The increase in police numbers that this Budget has overseen has done a couple of things. There were in the 2018/19 financial year 831 new recruits. That is a record number. Never once in the history of this country has there been more police recruits gone through the Police College. The previous record actually funnily enough was 683 new recruits and that again was when New Zealand First was in Government. We've got the largest police workforce in New Zealand history with more than 13000 men and women and because of that our victimisation fell by 7000 within the last year.So I find it a bit incredulous that the National Party stand up and want to criticise this side of the House for having record funding in the police force record numbers going through the recruitment process and the largest police workforce in the history of this country. This is a good Budget for the coalition Government and for New Zealand First.