Garrett David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Garrett David: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5621] 
DAVID GARRETT (ACT) 
: 
 The Government will provide in this year’s Budget $10 million over the next 3 years for the police to roll out Taser stun guns at a cost of approximately $1000 each. An initial $5.3 million of that $10 million will provide the police throughout the country with 720 Tasers. What a wonderful piece of expenditure it is. I say that without a trace of facetiousness and I say it for this reason. We need only go back a couple of months to see two tragic cases where the use of a Taser would have made a difference. In one case a Taser had been available would have saved a life. In the other case a life was very close to being lost. About a month ago an actor—I believe his name was Mr Mokaraka—was involved in an incident. The circumstances are a bit unclear. There has been a suggestion that he was attempting suicide by cop. In any event he came out waving a meat cleaver. Luckily for him the police officer on the scene at the time was an ordinary police officer who shot him with a pistol and Mr Mokaraka is alive today because the armed offenders squad had not been deployed. Sadly the reality is that those gentlemen are trained to fire two shots to the large part of the body and one does not survive that. So Mr Mokaraka is very very lucky. 
If we go back a year or so ago we know of another sad case in Christchurch. A fellow who was apparently mentally disturbed appeared in the dusk or evening armed with a hammer and was shot and killed. That case highlights exactly why the Taser is a humane weapon and is a wonderful advance for the police in this country. I say that again for two reasons. Firstly had the officer been armed with a Taser that man would almost certainly have been alive today. Secondly members will recall that there was a considerable dispute as to just what the circumstances of that case were. Lawyers in the Chamber will know that eyewitnesses are frequently unreliable. There were conflicting eyewitness accounts of whether the man was advancing or was static or exactly what he was doing at the time he was shot. 
I have seen the Tasers to be provided to the police both here and overseas. They are equipped with a video camera and audio. As soon as the device is turned on on comes the video and audio. Had the officer in Christchurch been equipped with that weapon two things would have happened. Firstly that poor man would be alive and secondly there would be no dispute as to the circumstances that led to him being shot. Instead he is dead. 
We can go back a few more years to the Wallace case in Waitara which is still sadly going on. We can think of the anguish that has been caused for the family the police and the policeman and we can think of the cost all of which would have been avoided if Constable Abbott had had a Taser made available to him that night instead of having to make a snap decision to use a pistol. 
This is a wonderful move and the Government is to be commended for it. It will result certainly in fewer people being killed or seriously injured. It will probably result in fewer complaints to the Independent Police Conduct Authority because as I know from my experience as a lawyer where there is video evidence of what someone has done or has not done it becomes very much harder to dispute it. 
The ACT Party fully supports this move. We would like to see if possible the programme accelerated and every front-line policeman having the option of the humane use of a Taser rather than having a firearm which is usually fatal and is sometimes purely by the grace of God not fatal. I have seen the Taser in action in Arizona during a visit I made a couple of years ago. I was told that frequently simply turning the Taser on is effective. I recall that members of a select committee became agitated or anxious when the laser sight came upon them even though the weapon had no cartridge in it. It was no threat at all but every member was aware of it. I have been told that the experience overseas is that when that light hits the chest the situation is defused.