Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa): Thank you Madam Speaker. If I can rewind back to 2019 and then I'll link it back to this bill the Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill. If we go back to 2019 the National Party tried as hard as we could to draw the attention of the Labour Party to the fact that we were having a developing gang problem in New Zealand. As part of our package as part of our law and order discussion document that we put out we said that we were going to use the highly successful highly respected gang task force Raptor that the Australians had used. And the response that we got from the Labour Party was the Hon Iain Lees-Galloway jumping around in his seat pretending to be a raptor and the entire Labour caucus thinking it's a great joke. Well it's not such a joke now is it? When we had a 70 percent increase in gang numbers in this country; when we've had an enormous increase in drive-by shootings and gun violence in this country; when the gangs are recruiting faster than we can recruit train and deploy our front-line police offices. So it's not so funny now is it Labour? Five years on when the country is suffering and you at the time thought that it was a joke. Everyone's looking down now. There was a lot of heckling going on before; they've gone very quiet.And now let's fast forward—let's fast forward to today when I asked the fourth police Minister in the last 12 months about Kiwis' safety—about public safety. And what did she do? She cracked another joke. She thought it was funny with the entire Labour caucus laughing at it again. And that is exactly why we find ourselves in this position with this bill that we're supporting because we've taken the position on this side of the House that we will support any bill that might go some way to somehow making a shopkeeper or a retailer or their worker or their customer or a member of the public and a Kiwi safer. But this is ridiculous. You're bringing this in the last week of Parliament as the House rises.They keep using this language around a spike. Let me tell you how long you've been talking about a spike for—sorry Madam Speaker. The Labour Party have been talking about spikes for over two years. This so-called spike has been growing over the last six years—an over 500 percent increase in ram raids and aggravated robberies. A 33 percent increase in violent crime. Not so funny now is it Labour caucus? It's not so funny now. And I notice that—Angela Roberts: Just get on with it.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Sorry what was that? What was that? If you're going to say something say it loud enough so I can actually respond.Angela Roberts: Get on with it.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Oh get on with it. Don't worry—don't worry—I'm getting on with it all right.I notice that you've got your senior whip in the chair tonight. I've just visited his town of Palmerston North with our outstanding National Party candidate there Ankit who is working extremely hard. While I was there for the day let me tell you what I did. I met with six shopkeepers. I went to six businesses who haven't seen their local MP. And it might be nice for him to go and actually visit them. The first one—a female that owns a shop by herself—she's so fearful of what might happen that she uses access control. She keeps the door locked. And when she sees a customer she checks to see who they are she checks to make sure that she thinks that she's going to be safe and she'll open the door. They think it's funny again—they think it's funny again—they're joking again. You are a disgrace—you are a disgrace—because you do not understand. Sorry Madam Speaker. It is a disgrace to see Labour Party members huddling and laughing when I'm talking about a woman that is fearful in the shop that she works.Anna Lorck: Who's laughing? No one's laughing.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Take a call—take a call and respond to that because it is a disgrace.So then I went to the next shop—I went to the next shop—Hon Dr Deborah Russell: Which business? You haven't told us the business.Hon MARK MITCHELL: This is on the main street of Palmerston North. Very happy to give you the details.Tangi Utikere: Broadway. Oh I know already.Hon MARK MITCHELL: So we went down to the—oh he says he knows. He says he knows the shops. He says he knows who they are. That's good. I went to the next shop. It was two ladies there that said they won't walk through the town at night—they won't walk through the town square at night because they are scared because they're fearful.I went and saw another business owner in Palmerston North who had boy racers—Anna Lorck: Talk about the bill.Hon MARK MITCHELL: No I will address the issues that the Minister raised. We're a first reading you're not the Speaker and I will address the issues that the Minister raised.So I went to another business. Guess what happened there. Boy racers turning up in a cul-de-sac tearing up the paddocks tearing up the grass tearing up the tar seal and the seal in the cul-de-sac. So guess what happened. They called the police and a brave policewoman on her own came down that cul-de-sac to try and stop one of the vehicles that was tearing it up. Guess what happened to her. I'm sure the member knows—I'm sure the member knows this. I'm sure he would have done a welfare check. The boy racers surrounded the police car. They surrounded her so she could not leave. Guess what else they did. They tried to interfere with her brakes and they urinated on her vehicle. Hon Dr Deborah Russell: Is this about ram raids?Hon MARK MITCHELL: Oh don't worry I'll get to the ram raids—don't worry about that. The member doesn't want me to talk about this; it's a bit uncomfortable. The truth is a bit uncomfortable for them.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Order! I think all members can leave it up to the Speaker to determine what is and is not—Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Including that member thank you. All members can leave it up to the Speaker to determine what is or isn't within the scope of this debate.Hon MARK MITCHELL: So let's move on to a couple of the dairies that were in there. You want to talk about ram raids let's move on to a couple of the dairies in Palmerston North with one owner that has not only built a cage around him and his wife that run the dairy but he's also put automatic access control at the door so he's got bars that go across the door he checks to see who it is he presses a button and the bars slide back. We had the Minister stand in this House and say as if it was a matter of pride that we've delivered bollards and we've delivered fog canons and you can put garage doors on the front of your shops. What? We want our country to look like Mogadishu—because that's where we're going. I don't want our shopkeepers to have to come to work each day and have to lock themselves away in a cage to be safe. That is not the New Zealand that I grew up in. That is not the New Zealand that we're going to accept. But that is the New Zealand that this Labour Party—this Labour caucus that continues to laugh and mock and carry on that's the New Zealand that this Labour Party has delivered for New Zealand. You can look around Mr Bennett but the best thing you may do is just tell the members around you that it's actually a serious matter. These are real lives. There is a massive human cost to what is going on in this country at the moment. By the way there's a massive economic cost too.So it would have been nice—the police Minister has been a bit mystified about the fact that I've been standing in this House and asking the Minister the entire time she's been the Minister about her incoming statement about the fact that Kiwis feel safer because I can promise her that the majority of Kiwis and New Zealanders in this country at the moment do not safer. I think that it was lost on her that she stood up 17 times in this House. She's never bothered to correct that. She has continued to say that Kiwis feel safer.She raised the 1800 police officers. Let me tell you now that if you can find one police officer in this country that says to you that we can feel the positive effects of being reinforced by 1800 police officers they'd be very hard to find. By the way it's not 1800. This Government's been very good at being deceptive and trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes. It's actually 530 sworn police officers with the power of arrest. We've had over 60 stations in this country that have lost police officers. We've had well over 100 that have had no additional numbers. And when our front-line police officers are trying to deal with a 33 percent increase in violent crime a 500 percent increase in ram raids a 41 percent increase in victimisations when they're trying to attend to a 60 percent increase in mental health callouts because this Government's failed on that as well they don't feel reinforced. The demand side of their work has well and truly overwhelmed them and they are fighting to keep their heads above water. And they've had to deal with and serve under a Government that came in and prioritised two things: reduce the prison muster by 30 percent and repeal the only tough piece of sentencing law that we have on our books. That is why as a country we find ourselves in the dire situation that we are in today.