6. Question No. 6—PoliceHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 6—Police6. Hon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of Police: Can he confirm that there were several violent robberies experienced by members of the public over the last week and is the Government's approach to retail crime working? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): Yes and like most other New Zealanders I've been disgusted by the recent scenes of offending. This behaviour is completely unacceptable and it has no place in our country. The Government takes these crimes very seriously. I understand that police have arrested 14 young people in Auckland and Waikato over the weekend alone. Police are ramping up the roll-out of crime prevention schemes and we're putting more resources into prevention so that these individuals get on to better pathways rather than getting into trouble in the first place. Police are actively following up these events to ensure that the young people involved face the consequences of their actions. Hon Mark Mitchell: Since announcing his policy around prevention how many additional young people have been brought into that programme? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: That was only a couple of weeks ago and we haven't got the latest updated numbers but I do expect that we'll be getting regular updates on that so I'm happy to provide the member with the numbers when they do start to come through. Hon Mark Mitchell: What's his response to a retail worker at St Lukes whose husband now has to tell them to be careful at work and who says that The whole thing is just a disgrace the Government … people getting away with it … it's just really sad in our country."?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I absolutely think that the situation those retail workers have been put in is unacceptable; no amount of target hardening though is going to solve that problem. If you look at the smash-and-grab that happened in the mall in the Waikato in the weekend it was truly horrific. A group of young people—a significant group of young people—with hammers went into a busy shopping mall in the middle of the day and undertook serious criminal offending in front of a whole lot of onlookers. There is no amount of target hardening that's going to stop that type of behaviour. Therefore we do have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to get these young people back on to the straight and narrow and prevent the offending in the first place and we will ensure that those young people who have undertaken this type of offending are identified and that the follow-up action is taken and that they're held accountable for their actions. Hon Mark Mitchell: How many offenders for these aggravated robberies and ram raids have been convicted? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I haven't got the numbers of convictions; I have got the numbers of prosecutions though. So if we look at Auckland since the beginning of the year 73 of these types of events have happened there. There have been 42 prosecutions 43 referrals to youth aid and seven cases remain under active investigation. In the Counties Manukau area of the 64 events 50 prosecutions have followed that followed by 23 youth referrals and seven remain under active investigation. Of the 71 in the Waikato 40 prosecutions have followed nine youth referrals and 12 are under active investigation. Hon Mark Mitchell: Point of order Mr Speaker. My question was very specific and the reason why it was directed at convictions is because that's where the real consequence lies. The Minister has come to this House and he is actually unable to tell this House how many convictions there have been in relation to these ram raids and aggravated robberies. I think it's a very basic question. SPEAKER: Yeah he did start out the answer—you can go back and look at Hansard but he started out saying that he didn't have those figures and presented other information that he thought might be helpful I guess. Hon Mark Mitchell: What percentage of offenders are being apprehended and charged for these offences? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Well I just gave those numbers. If the member cared to listen to my previous answer I went through the number of ram raids the number of young people who have been prosecuted the number of young people who have been referred to youth justice as a result and the number of cases that are still under investigation. SPEAKER: I'll give the member an extra question. Hon Mark Mitchell: How many of the offenders responsible for these ram raids and these aggravated robberies and the tsunami of violent retail offending in the last year—how many have been charged? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In Auckland City there have been 73 incidents 42 prosecutions 43 youth referrals—Hon Mark Mitchell: Point of order Mr Speaker. The original supplementary was that I asked for a percentage of how many of the offenders have been charged. He's just giving me a number not a percentage. That's an important number in terms of how much offending has been going on. SPEAKER: You can't require the Minister to answer exactly the way you want it and you certainly can't do it by interrupting him because you don't know that he might have given that at the end of that answer. I don't know you don't know and now the House will never know I guess."