Mitchell Mark; Andersen GinnyHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Mr Chairman thank you very much. I just want to acknowledge that we have the Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Chamber and acknowledge the work that his staff did in Auckland recently with that tragedy in downtown Auckland.My question to the Minister is this: in an internal email sent out to police it was said that as we continue to operate in a more fiscally constrained economy with growing demand on services we deliver there remains pressure on Police's financial position." Can the Minister please stand and just give us some background and let us know exactly what that means and what the implications are please.If the Minister doesn't want to answer that question can she answer this question or respond to this and explain to this committee and to the people of New Zealand who are currently experiencing the worst levels of violent crime that we have seen in our history as a country—and I think that they deserve an answer to what seems to be an apparent attempt to apply some fiscal restraint to our police service at a time when they're trying to respond to enormous demands certainly on their front line. So my next question is this: are there going to be any delays to recruitment for non-specific constabulary roles? And if they are non-specific constabulary roles what exactly does that mean because the Minister stood in the House two or three weeks ago and quite clearly told the House that authorised officers now are considered the front line of policing and so if that is the case—if there is going to be a restriction on these roles—how is that going to impact the new front line of policing and what sort of pressure is going to be put back on the front line if these fiscal restraints are going to mean that either positions can't be hired for or they can't be replaced? What does it mean to front-line police officers when another point that has been highlighted is that they're looking at minimising the collection of time off in lieu (TOIL) annual leave and the appointment of any new non-constabulary position.Minister these questions are critically important not just to this House not just to the people of New Zealand but to the front-line police officers that are actually out there every day trying to keep our community safe whilst at the same time dealing with a huge increase in violent crime.Hon GINNY ANDERSEN (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Mr Chair. Thank you to the member for those questions. I'll run it so I won't answer every single question if that's all right but I'll clump them and do them all and then do a bit if that's all right.So in relation to the email that was sent out by the Deputy Commissioner of Police that was in relation to funding that has been allocated. So there is no cut to funding. It was I think a very prudent and wise reminder for how those funds will be utilised. So things like not doing excessive travel are really important ways of making sure that we get good value for taxpayer money.What that does not change at all is the fact that this Government has committed funding to continue the ratio of one police officer to every 480 New Zealanders. So that funding has been taken as part of Budget 2023 and that will continue forward. So the fact that there was an internal email sent out to police staff to remind them to be prudent in terms of not overly engaging consultants if not necessary is simply what I think is good practice in terms of the Public Service and that we are making sure that that money is being used effectively. So I think it was a wise thing to do and it's good to see that we see those sort of practices happening within Police.In terms of the pressures on demand the member knows I've already stated quite clearly in this House that from the front line what we do here is the two big areas we see putting pressure on demand—the increased number of family violence occurrences that we're seeing and also mental health; they're the two main areas.So in terms of making sure that we meet those demands there is nothing in that email that takes away from the fact that we will continue to maintain that 1:480 ratio and that we will also continue to work with wider programmes like Te Aorerekura and Whāngaia Ngā Pā Harakeke which works alongside to make sure that we have good practices in place for sharing information for ensuring that community safety is paramount and we're also working smarter in the area of family violence because we know it's those long-term investments in community resourcing that will have an impact on that demand over time.When we look at family violence in particular what we are seeing in the statistics is that while we're seeing an increase in the numbers of family violence occurrences the level of really serious ones is not as high as it has been. So that demonstrates to me that there is an increased appetite within the public to report family violence and that's a good thing I see as Minister because it shows trust and confidence in our front line it shows trust and confidence to report family violence and it gives us some hope that we can continue to work in this space to bring down that reporting."