Ryall Tony: General Debates 
Ryall Tony: General Debates 
[Volume:618;Page:14392] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 That was a sad and pitiful speech from the Minister for Social Development and Employment who tries to hide the unemployment figures by moving tens of thousands of New Zealanders on to the sickness benefit. He surreptitiously tells his public servants to put people on the sickness and invalids benefits so that he can stand in Parliament and say the number of people on the unemployment benefit is coming down. I tell that Minister that these are the things that will remove him from office in the next 12 months. National will abolish the race-based privileges of the Labour Government. National will reduce crime by keeping career criminals in jail for longer. We will not let the Parole Board release rapists after serving 33 percent of their sentences. We will put beneficiaries back to work and will lower taxes for hard-working middle-class New Zealanders. We will have them paying lower taxes rather than being beholden to this Government and its beneficiaries. 
In the Bay of Plenty in the last 10 days the people of the community have pulled together in a way that is unprecedented since the earthquake in Edgecumbe to support their neighbours and the community in recovering from the Eastern Bay of Plenty floods. I want to say that— 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: George Hawkins was there. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Well if we want to say who was or was not there I think Mr Samuels should be careful. Once people have been rehoused and the farms are back in business it is important that we in the region find out whether things could have been handled better than they were. Was this a freak flood or one caused by global warming? Should the river schemes have been stronger? Should the dam have been managed differently? Those are all questions the community will need to seek answers to later on. But I want to report that the people of the region are pulling together and we look forward to the Government’s announcement of the rural recovery package to help families and farmers in particular to re-establish their businesses in the aftermath of the disaster. 
As the National Party’s law and order spokesperson I want to turn to the tremendous leadership that Dr Don Brash is providing this country with in his plan to improve the fight against crime. The law and order system is simply a mess. In significant parts of this country the police turn up to an emergency in the required time in only just over half the incidents that they are expected to attend. If one rings up with a life-threatening emergency the police are supposed to be there within 10 minutes but in south Auckland it is likely that they will turn up within that time frame in only just over half those emergency cases. That is because this Government has underfunded and under-resourced the New Zealand Police and has the police under such considerable pressure that they are unable to deliver a lower rate of crime. Since Labour has been in Government crime is up across every region. Violent crime is up by 15 percent under this Labour Government. Every year the chances of being bashed mugged or attacked are the highest they have ever been. In Wellington City there has been a 40 percent increase in burglaries. In Rotorua burglaries and violence go unchecked and the Government offers nothing. Right now we have a horrible situation whereby people who are before the courts for quite serious offences are on the verge of walking free because of stupendous delays in the nation’s court system. We know that the Ministry of Justice states that 40 percent of the jury cases in Auckland are at risk because of those delays.