Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1662. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure for me to get up and speak today and I am going to speak today about law and order our police service and the latest crime statistics results that have just been released and they look very good to me. We are seeing total crime reducing. We are seeing murder rates dropping serious assaults are on the decline robbery is trending down total burglaries are dropping and overall there is a 4.8 percent reduction in recorded crime.  
These results are phenomenal and are just continuing on a trend that we saw start back in 2008. What happened in 2008? The National Government came into power.  
Another thing happened and it is that we saw a strengthening of the police leadership. We saw commissioner Peter Marshall and his deputies Mike Bush and Viv Rickard come in and they were indicative of the type of strong leadership that we are now seeing become prevalent within our police force. They have all the skills required of a chief executive officer and senior managers but they have remained connected with the front line which in a service like the police is respected and helps to build morale and results like the ones we are seeing. 
 I would like to congratulate them on the Prevention First model which has been rolled out nationally and is part of the model of our neighbourhood policing units that we will see working in our communities soon. This fits in perfectly with our comprehensive programme of reform to protect communities prevent crime and put victims first. We are staying tough on criminals and keeping record numbers of police on the beat.  
Neighbourhood policing teams are a move towards supporting Prevention First. They will be established in the 32 priority locations across the country where you are more likely to be a victim of crime. The neighbourhood policing teams will take a collaborative approach working side by side with residents business owners and community groups. They will be focused on addressing the drivers of crime. Essentially it is a great extension of what we have always experienced in our community constable: a policeman who was always out in the community who generally was recognised and whom people felt safe approaching and could talk to and discuss their issues and problems within the community with. We are now going to see a big expansion of what has been a very— 
Scott Simpson 
: Useful.  
MARK MITCHELL 
: —useful model—thank you—in our communities with these neighbourhood support groups.  
We have also made some big changes to the Crimes Act that have come into effect to protect the most vulnerable in our communities. The new law makes it an offence to stay silent if you know that a child or a vulnerable adult is at risk of death harm or sexual assault. It is no longer acceptable in this country for people to turn a blind eye or to use the excuse that they were not involved in the abuse of a child when they knew the child was at risk. A painful memory from my own policing career was picking up the body of a baby who was beaten and broken. She had been abused over a long period of time and all under the noses of people who should have stepped forward to protect her.  
I know that none of us want to live in a country where we cannot protect our children and the most vulnerable from harm. I have to say in my time overseas I spent a lot of time—I spent most of my time in fact; I am sure my friends will tell you they got sick of hearing it—promoting New Zealand espousing the virtues of this beautiful country and encouraging them to come down here to visit. But it was not easy when I was asked at a gathering of my friends one day when it had been all over CNN about another death of a baby in New Zealand. They turned to me and they asked me: “Can’t you people protect your own kids?”. These types of law changes are going a long way towards making sure that we are doing our job to give the tools to the police to do a better job of being able to protect our kids and children.  
National has delivered on its promise to put 600 extra police on the front line— 
Hon Annette King 
: No 350 of those were Labour’s. They were not National’s at all.  
MARK MITCHELL 
: —by the end of 2011 and we have given police better tools to do their jobs.  
Hon Annette King 
: That’s not true. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Just hang on I am getting to Labour in a minute. We will continue to ensure our front-line police are able to spend more time on the streets preventing crime.  
The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.