Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:664;Page:11733] 
5. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Does she stand by all of her statements? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 If I am truthfully and accurately quoted in full context yes. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does she stand by her statement to the Law and Order Committee this morning that “The Government has delivered on its promise of putting more blue suits on the street.”; if so why is the Auckland district which saw an 8.1 percent in violent crime last year budgeted to have 32 fewer police by the end of next year than it had a year ago? 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Just suits—no bodies in them. 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Talking of suits yes the Government has delivered more police and we look at the police in terms of the national area rather than simply one district over another. The Commissioner of Police fully explained the matter of blue suits to that member this morning. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Considering that total crime in the Waikato district has increased by 9.1 percent and violent crime has increased by 11.8 percent under her Government how safe should the people there feel knowing that she intends stripping 18 police officers from that district by the end of 2011? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Of course I have no intention of stripping any police officers from any area but I can say to the member that despite all his best efforts public confidence in the police has risen to the highest levels yet: 79 percent of people say that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the overall performance of the police in 80 percent of cases the service met or exceeded expectations and 88 percent of people say that they were treated fairly in their dealings with the police. Despite what that member says people can feel safe under a National Government. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: Does she stand by her statement that this Government is serious about taking away the profits of crime and putting gangs out of business? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Yes. I am very pleased to advise the House that the police have restrained $50 million of assets since the Government passed legislation last year to make it easier for the police to crack down on illegal gang profits. Since December 2009 94 cases have been referred to the new asset recovery unit with most relating to either cannabis or methamphetamine offending. From those cases 61 specific assets have been identified for potential confiscation with the biggest category being cash and bank accounts worth $12 million followed by $10 million of residential property. The first actual forfeiture order under the new legislation was for $55000 worth of motorcycles owned by the Killer Beez gang. 
I seek leave to table a graph produced by the police that shows the rise in the value of assets seized since 2005. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: How satisfied should Wellington people feel that Counties-Manukau is receiving 257 new police officers in the same period of time that Wellington will lose 46 police officers even though violent crime is increasing here in Wellington and the Minister claims that it is rapidly decreasing in Counties-Manukau? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Well the people of Wellington should feel very satisfied that under this Government we will not be taking officers out of Wellington to go and help out Counties-Manukau every time there is a murder which is what had to happen under Operation Cavalry when the previous Government was in power. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Mr Speaker this document has been tabled before a select committee—just so you know. I seek leave to table questions 1 and 2 from the Vote Police report  
Police Response to 2010/11 Estimates: 
Examination of Vote Police: Supplementary Written Questions 
 where it details the cuts— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: This is information to be— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: It is not readily available. It was tabled just this morning. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: But it will be readily available. There is a movement to table documentation that is made available to select committees. It will be readily available to members of the House. I think that we should not be wasting time seeking leave to table that sort of documentation because it will be readily available to all members. It does not need to be tabled. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I simply make the point that you have deemed that when a document is not readily available at the time of tabling—and I think you allowed one of our colleagues to table a media statement that had been released but was not readily available as it had not been circulated—it is fine to seek to do so. All I ask is that you be consistent please. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I do not think we should mix up what are effectively reports to select committees or papers that belong to a select committee with the example given which was a newspaper article from a foreign print publication. In this case I think we have let one go through before and should not have. If a committee has not released all of the matters that pertain to a particular report of that committee it is a circumvention of the Standing Orders and of the conventions of Parliament to come in here and seek leave to table it through different means. I can indicate that we will object to this leave should it be sought. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I sought advice from the clerk of the Law and Order Committee before I came into the House as to whether this document had been tabled and was available for public release. It is as I have said. Secondly I make the point again that it is not readily available to members at this point because it has not been circulated. I simply ask for a consistent ruling. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If members seek through this device to short-circuit the proper procedures of select committees I have some concerns about that. There is a proper process for information provided to select committees to be released; otherwise we will end up with endless time being wasted in this House on members wanting to table stuff that will be released by select committees which is the proper process for it to be released. The information is publicly available and the member is perfectly free to wave it under the noses of any journalist he likes but we are not going to waste the time of the House tabling stuff that is available to the House through the proper channels.