Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Pillay Lynne: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:619;Page:15103] 
6.  
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Does he consider the current resources and staffing levels of both sworn and non-sworn police to be adequate; if so why? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 Generally yes. We are funding over a billion dollars a year into policing we are providing more staff and more and better resources and the results say it all. Today the police commissioner announced the crime figures for the year ended June 2004. He said: “The drop in recorded crime this year equates to a decline in the crime rate of 6.5 percent per 10000 head of population.” He also said: “The continuing increase in the rate of resolved crime is also most encouraging with the highest resolution rate—45.1 percent—in 20 years.” If we compare that result with what happened under National which put money into a computer that did not work cut staff numbers and cut the police budget we see we are doing a helluva lot better. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Has there been a turn-round in the rate of crime in the most populated area of the country? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Yes. I again quote from the police commissioner: “The three Auckland districts’ results reflect a major turn-around in the battle against crime in the most populated region of the country and reflect good work in the past year. It also reflects the effort of making changes over the last 5 years.” For example in Counties-Manukau the crime rate has dropped 16.5 percent—the biggest drop in the country—in Auckland City the crime rate has dropped 11.8 percent and in North Shore - Waitakere the crime rate has fallen 5.3 percent. That is good news from a good Government. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is it not a fact that if the Minister actually read the statistics that the police commissioner tabled today he would know that petty crime has fallen because New Zealanders know the police do not respond to their concerns in that respect and that under his stewardship of 5 years there has been in fact more crime more violence and more drug crimes 
than at any other time? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: One of the reasons why National never got on top of crime was that it had that sort of attitude. This Government is driving the rate of crime down. We are the most successful Government in a long while. The rate of crime is down to the level it was at the beginning of the 1980s—way back to 1983. It has never been lower since that time. That member knows it and I think he is a bit jealous. 
Dr Muriel Newman 
: What is his response to the claims made in the latest  
Police News 
 that police numbers in Auckland have increased by only 1 percent over the last 4 years while the population has grown by 9 percent and that “Sworn police numbers are failing to keep pace with the city’s growth.”? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The results show it all. Those comments are not correct and I think the Police Association intends correcting the matter in the next issue. 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Does the Minister think it is a good thing or a bad thing that methamphetamine convictions have increased because the police are de-emphasising cannabis offences as suggested by the crime statistics released by the police today; and does he agree that the police are taking a sensible lead on this issue while this Parliament does nothing? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: That is a very unusual interpretation of what the crime statistics say. I do not know why the member thinks that. I think the fewer people smoking marijuana and the fewer using methamphetamine the better. The police are really getting on top of it because they are being well resourced and of course supported by this Government. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why will this Government not tell the people of New Zealand that in the past year under this Minister’s stewardship there has been an almost 30 percent increase in methamphetamine-related crime which has gone hand in glove with increases in grievous assaults and serious assaults? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: That member must realise that when one focuses on methamphetamine when one puts more pressure on the better the results and the greater the number of people caught. National would interpret the figures as meaning that the less one does the better the result. We do not.