Tolley Anne: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tolley Anne: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 05 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7153. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police) 
: 
 Let us get some facts out on the table. Police corrections and the Serious Fraud Office have had a fantastic year—a fabulous year. There are falling crime rates. I think we are looking at the lowest crime rates in this country for 30 years—the lowest crime rates in 30 years. There are reductions in reoffending. In fact instead of 51 percent of offenders reoffending within 2 years we have brought that down over this past year by 5.5 percent—outstanding work by the Department of Corrections. The white-collar criminals who have been paraded through the courts by the Serious Fraud Office are having to face the facts and take account of the crimes that they have committed. So we have lots and lots to celebrate in this Government and I am proud to be the Minister of those portfolios. This Government is proud of those police officers who are out there on the street and we are proud of those fantastic public servants in both corrections and the Serious Fraud Office. 
But what about the other side? Well it is all doom and gloom over there is it not? It is scaremongering that the sky is going to fall. Labour’s police spokesman Kris Faafoi spent the year trying to convince everyone that there were cuts in the police budget. Well I actually doubt that that man can read a set of books because the police budget has stayed the same and what is more it is predicted to stay the same. That is not a cut; that stays the same. That is not a cut at all. If you look at some of his press releases they say that there is a “Grim future for Police under National.” They say “The mood of this week’s Police Association conference is one of disappointment with budget cuts severely impacting on front-line policing.” Well I have got news for Mr Faafoi. Actually front-line policing hours have gone up. There are more police on the front line now than there were 12 months ago and this time next year we will see an increase again. 
He even went so far as to try to link budget cuts with sexual assault investigations saying that we have been cutting back on investigating sexual assaults. Actually that was a report from the Auditor-General which said that the Police had not trained some of the head-office officers in line with the proposals that the Auditor-General had put in front of them. It was nothing to do with sexual assault investigations at all. Mr Faafoi is creating facts to suit his story but he did not convince anyone and he certainly did not convince the Police. 
How about when he tried to put up that gangs were going to infiltrate the police because there were budget cuts? Who in their right mind would believe that? The Police came out immediately and said that yes from time to time gang members do try to get into the police but they always find them out and turf them out before they get anywhere near. It has got nothing to do with the budget. 
Mind you the pseudo-police spokesperson Mr Goff spent the whole year trying to justify the statement he made prior to the last election that we were actually cutting back on police recruits. Well we were not. The Police said we were not. All the Police was doing was what it has done since time immemorial and balancing its recruits with its attrition levels. So yes it does have to move around its numbers. Does that not make sense? But no according to the police spokesman for Labour that was about budget cuts. 
So then we move on to the corrections spokesman Mr Charles Chauvel. Well you know they really have trouble with their maths over there because when we announced what we were doing in corrections to reduce the reoffending by 25 percent we said that we wanted to see 600 less prisoners every year coming into prison. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I think the word is “fewer”. 
Hon ANNE TOLLEY 
: All right fewer. I do not mind. There were 600. So why did Charles Chauvel say that reducing prisoner numbers by 100 per year over the next 6 years is hardly anything to boast about? I would suggest that he goes back to school because he might need some national standards in maths. 
He went on and on and on Mr Chauvel did about the tabling of the contract for the Wiri Prison—the building of the new Wiri Prison. He went on and on and on about it. We were contractually—we were legally—bound to table it. We had been in discussions with the Clerk of the House about how that would happen what form it would take and of course it was tabled well within the time. Then what happened from Mr Chauvel? Nothing actually. His only complaint was that I turned the sod without telling people how much it was going to cost. Again he cannot read. All of that was in the press release at the time that we turned the sod. Meantime we have had a great year.