Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19466] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. The House meets at this time after the urgent debate to have the general debate as the wheels are well and truly falling off this Labour Government. The Government is falling to bits as Ministers take every opportunity to avoid any of the responsibility or accountability that the public should expect from them. What we are seeing day after day in this country with the New Zealand Police is a symptom of a wider crumbling of trust in the Government of New Zealand. This is a Government in which no Minister takes any responsibility. The formula has been set by the Prime Minister: never take responsibility blame the officials hold an inquiry or two—or three or four—and wait for the spin to take over. Ministers are never responsible for their failures. 
The Minister of Police the Hon George Hawkins is the Minister who gave us “dial 111 for a taxi”; he is the Minister who delivered us “dial 111 and scream”. He is now the Minister who gives us a police force that is not investigating serious sexual complaints in south Auckland. The police released a statement not 2 hours ago in which they confirmed that there were 11 unassigned sex cases in south Auckland. But we saw the real contradiction in the House earlier today when the Prime Minister said that these cases are under investigation but the Minister of Police said that they are a such a problem that the police are putting a team together to go in and investigate them. How is it that in one of the largest police districts in New Zealand 1100 files are sitting on a desk gathering dust? These files include 11 sex crimes five of which involve alleged rapes of New Zealand women. 
How seriously does the Government take this issue? In question time today the Prime Minister laughed and giggled as Don Brash asked her how she would deal with the rape complaints of those women who have been put in the situation where not one police officer has been allocated to deal with their complaints. What did New Zealand’s second woman Prime Minister do when Don Brash asked how the Prime Minister would explain to these nine women the way their sexual complaints were being dealt with? What did the Prime Minister do? She laughed and chuckled about who watches  
Breakfast 
 TV. Did the Prime Minister say that she considers it an absolute disgrace that when a woman makes a rape complaint in this country George Hawkins’ police force can put it in a file on a table? What did the Prime Minister of New Zealand say? Absolutely nothing! She just giggled laughed and tried to dismiss the whole case. What did the Prime Minister of New Zealand say to the people of Counties-Manukau who cannot get a cop to turn up when their shop has been ripped off or who cannot get a cop to turn up when their car has been burgled? What did she say to those people? Absolutely nothing! 
We have in this country today a Minister of Police who is completely out of his depth and is unable to deliver the resources that the police need. The pressure has got too great for the Commissioner of Police. On television today for the first time he shifted the blame to the Government. He had been a loyal little public servant agreeing with the Minister and saying that the Minister was doing everything he could but today it got too much. The commissioner said on television today: “Yes I would like more police. Yes I have asked Government for more police. Yes I will wait …”. The reason why we have seen the never-ending series of crises associated with 111 calls is that this Minister has ignored the call for additional staff. The Minister must take responsibility but of course we will just have another inquiry.