Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister of Police): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Let me give you a rough time line of the last 12 years with regard to law and order. In 2007 it was the last major investment in policing with a thousand more police delivered by New Zealand First and Labour in 2007—the last major investment in police.Let's move forward to 2011. Australian Rebels motorcycle gang first became established in New Zealand. This event has been highlighted by experts as a point in time when the gang scene changed. The gangs became more sophisticated. They became more organised and it changed. But guess what happened next year? In 2013 that financial year after the arrival of the Rebels police numbers dropped by 150—by 150. Let's move forward to 2016. At this point the gangs had become well established they'd become highly professional very organised and meth was out of control. And in the 2016 police annual report it said in the back in an appendix no more funding for any more police until 2020".Hon Peeni Henare: Till when?Hon STUART NASH: Until 2020 no more police. As mentioned the ratio between police and population had gone from 1:470 to 1:540.Now let's go to the 2017 annual workplace survey. This is a survey that police fill in to inform management about what is going on in the organisation. Sixty percent—"six zero" percent—of police said that they had an undue level of workplace stress. Sixty percent also said that they were not delivering on the promises that they were making to our communities. But the other interesting stat is that 80 percent said that they were committed to the New Zealand Police Service and to the communities they serve. Hon Peeni Henare: Good people.Hon STUART NASH: So what we had—you're dead right—is a group of incredibly dedicated men and women who knew what needed to be done to deliver but just did not have the resources to do it. They just did not have the resources. And when you've got 60 percent saying they have an undue level of workplace stress that is just not sustainable. Moving forward to 2017 Jacinda Ardern and her team sat down with Winston Peters and his team and out of that came a promise to deliver 1800 new police—1800 new police. Move forward two years to 2019 today—the two-year anniversary. In November of this year we will deliver on that promise for 1800 new police—we will deliver 1800 new police. And not only that the previous Government promised 880 more police over four years. We have delivered that in under two years. In under two years we have delivered what the previous Government promised to do in four years. Yet again New Zealand First and Labour have delivered for our policemen and policewomen and for our communities. When another wing graduates tomorrow—and I've been to every single graduation that has occurred under this Government except one—I can tell you that there is a fine group of men and women who have chosen a career less ordinary and they are making a real difference in our community. As of tomorrow there'll be 1744 new policemen and policewomen out in our community. They are doing an absolutely fantastic job and I'm incredibly proud to be their Minister and I'm incredibly proud to go to the graduation and welcome them into the New Zealand police service family.When you look at the results that police have delivered this year alone they have confiscated 1.6 metric tonnes of methamphetamine. Of the gun crime committed in Counties Manukau they have solved every single one of those. In my district alone in the eastern district the district commander has set up a gang focus unit and she has made it very clear that the reason she could do that is because of the numbers coming in. We've got these armed response teams—we're trialling them. The only reason the commissioner can trial these is because he now has the resources to set up these dedicated units of men and women to keep our community safe. The crime scene has changed. Gangs have become more sophisticated. P is out of control and we are dealing with the solution. Thank you New Zealand First and thank you Labour for backing our New Zealand police service."