10. Question No. 10—PoliceHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 10—Police10. Hon MARK MITCHELL (National—Whangaparāoa) to the Minister of Police: Will the Firearms Prohibition Order Bill be introduced by the end of this year and is the Government committed to introducing firearms prohibition orders?Hon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister of Police): Firstly can I congratulate the member on his new position and thank him for his question. This Government is committed to addressing firearms violence and its impact on our communities. That is why today we are taking an important next step to combat firearms violence with the introduction of the Firearms Prohibition Orders Legislation Bill. The bill adds a further layer of protection for the public by prohibiting high—SPEAKER: I'm sorry. I am going to finish the end of the year in a way which is you know indicating to Ministers the inappropriate approach. The answer to this question should have been Yes. It was introduced today"—you know—"and I'm committed to it." It's a very simple question in two parts and it didn't ask for reasoning. Hon Mark Mitchell: What concerns does she have that police have attended over 1300 incidents involving firearms since she said on 11 May she would introduce legislation in her words "[to] provide an extra tool for Police to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and to keep our communities safe."?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: In response to some real concerns about not only safety of our front-line staff but also our community this Government instituted the tactical response model with the police which does several things. The first thing it does is it increases the capability and training for front-line police and it comes directly off the front-line safety enhancement course that was put in place after the tragic death of Matthew Hunt. What this does—and anyone who has taken this course will tell you—is it gives them real confidence in their ability to make judgments about their safety in going into situations. On top of that we have improved the ability for our communities to be safe. We've taken 60000 military-style weapons out of circulation. We are introducing after 30 years of not having one an arms register which will give our front-line police a real indication of the number of firearms in our communities. It takes courage and it takes leadership to do these kinds of things. When under National what happened was police numbers dropped. We have made sure that we have kept our promise of not only increasing our police but also since 2017 we have recruited 2800 police. Those are the measures we are taking to keep our front-line police safe and our communities safe. Hon Mark Mitchell: Why has it taken her until the last sitting day of the year to introduce this bill when police officers are facing growing gun violence?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: Because we decided to take the time to get this bill absolutely right. There was a bill that was in this House introduced by a member of this House which basically was not up to scratch and there was a significant rework that was done on that particular bill by the select committee. We know that this work is so important we have to give it the time to get it right.Hon Mark Mitchell: Why when police officers are being shot on the streets as recently as the last fortnight did it take the Minister seven months to bring this bill on the last sitting day of the House?Hon POTO WILLIAMS: If that member thinks that the firearms prohibition orders legislation is the only thing that this Government has done to keep the front line safe then he is sorely mistaken. Under his time as a Cabinet Minister in the last National Government can he put his hand on his heart and say he did everything to keep the front line safe? No he cannot because what they did was they reduced the numbers on the front line to such a significant impact that it had an impact on safety of police. What we have done is we have increased police numbers. We have taken 60000 military-style weapons out of circulation. We have made sure that the arms register which will be instrumental in knowing how many firearms we have in our community is being re-instituted. That will have a huge impact on the safety of police."