Goff Phil: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19158. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour - Mt Roskill):We have just heard the National backbenchers prattling on about roading projects. They never mentioned the $100000 that they have just finished spending on a bridge that they have renovated which they are now going to pull down and replace with another bridge. I think that shows something about the fiscal responsibility of the National Government.Hon Anne Tolley: Just shows how little you understand about the process.Hon PHIL GOFF: But I say to the Minister of Police that instead of listening to her pork barrel politicking about her own electorate I want to come to a topic that is intimately involved with her portfolio of policing.In the last couple of months in the Auckland region that I represent we have had a number of tragic murders including the killing of two members of our ethnic communities. Blessie Gotingco was murdered after being abducted on the way home from work walking from the bus stop to her family home. [Interruption] Well the Minister can laugh about it and put it down. I happen to think that that is a tragedy for that family as indeed is the other case of Arun Kumar a Henderson dairy owner who was stabbed in the neck and murdered in front of his wife in his dairy just a fortnight ago.Members of the ethnic community have come to me in the last couple of weeks because they say that they are at the front line of criminal offending in New Zealand. They are the people who drive the taxis they are the people who staff the shops such as our dairies around the clock and they tell me very clearly that their concern is about the complacency of the Government in terms of their right to feel safe in their communities and on the streets. They say that when they go to a National Party member of Parliament they get told the one thing: “Oh crime’s coming down.” Well I am sorry but you know when your husband or your father or your son has been murdered to have the Government say: “It’s all right crime is coming down.” really does not wash.Hon Anne Tolley: No MP has said that to them.Hon PHIL GOFF: Actually Minister I looked up your own figures from April of this year. There were 360000 reported criminal offences—360000 reported criminal offences—in the last year. And what has that Minister done about it? I will tell you what she has done. In every Budget since National was elected the real spending on policing has declined.I went to the Parliamentary Library. I wanted an independent analysis of what has happened to expenditure on policing. Do you know what it told me? It said that since 2009 spending has been cut in real terms by $114 million. That is $114 million less to spend on policing and on keeping people safe. In the last year it was down $42 million—$42 million. No wonder Inspector Greg O’Connor says publicly that this year policing at the front line will become harder for our men and women in blue. That is what Greg O’Connor said.I asked that Minister in the Law and Order Committee: “Have you cut the number of police in the last 2 years?”. “No.” she said and then I got this letter. It is a written answer to the same question from the same Minister. Do you know what has happened in the last 2 years Minister? You have cut the number of sworn deployed constables by 80—80 fewer policemen and policewomen are on the street now than there were 2 years ago.Then I asked a question about community policing stations because in Henderson they say: “You know with these kids who are out of control and have been causing problems for months if not years what we really need is a community police station.” What is the National Government doing about community policing? It has cut it by 16 stations in the last 2 years—three in Manukau East in the last year alone. It has cut St Lukes Blockhouse Bay. It has cut Mount Albert. That does not even include stations like mine in Mount Roskill which has been temporarily closed for how long? For 2 years it has had a sign on the door of the station saying: “Temporarily closed to the public.” because those members do not have the guts to front up and say—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Hon PHIL GOFF: —“Actually we’ve closed the station.” That is the dishonesty of it Mr Speaker. They have cut spending on policing in real terms. They have cut spending on the police in terms of percentage of Government expenditure. They have cut spending on the police in terms of a percentage of GDP. They talk tough about law and order. Their trouble is that they do not walk the talk. That Minister’s administration of her portfolio is frankly a disgrace.