King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): It's a real pleasure to be able to take a call today on the justice sector review—[Interruption] I refer to page 461. What I'd normally like to do is throw some of those insults back at you—sorry back at the coalition Government—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! I wasn't throwing any insults at you.MATT KING: —yes sorry Mr Chairman—back at the coalition Government because they provide so much material but I'm going to actually be nice today and I'm going to acknowledge the Justice Committee chair Raymond Huo again. He's one of the nicer ones in that crew over there. I was only on the Justice Committee a short time and I think during some of these reviews I was actually not there but I was there for half of the police one and I want to concentrate on the police one because that's my background and also they don't get enough acknowledgment. The police don't get enough acknowledgment. I want to acknowledge that they've had a successful and productive year the New Zealand Police; they don't get enough recognition. I'd like to acknowledge the Police Commissioner Mike Bush who when I was in the police he was the detective senior sergeant on the North Shore. If you wanted a crime solved he was the man to have in charge of it. So it's great to see that he has worked his way up to be commissioner. He started at the ground floor and he's earned the right to be there. So I'd like to acknowledge himGreg O'Connor: What happened to you?MATT KING: I remained a detective and got out. I didn't stay on as long as Greg O'Connor 30 years. I stayed to 14 and I got out. It's a tough job. It's hard on the family and it's actually hard on your mental health. I describe policing as 80 percent routine 15 percent action and 5 percent terror. I acknowledge that the police have attended and done really well at some major incidents: the Kaikōura earthquakes in November 2016 the Christchurch fires in February 2017 and the Bay of Plenty floods in April 2017. When the National Government was in we were going to have 880 extra police and 245 support staff and $388 million was going to go in to cover that over the next four years. I also note that the police have adopted the 47 specific recommendations from the commission of inquiry into police conduct. So I'm glad to hear that because a sign of a good organisation is their ability to evolve and learn from the mistakes of the past. So that's good to hear.I see that in the 2016-17 year $300 million worth of assets were seized or restrained as in held back from criminal activity and $168 million was forfeited from criminals. That's the way you hurt them. You take their Harleys off them. You take their properties off them. That's what happens. I'd also note that the organised crime unit along with the customs and other groups dismantled 10 significant trans-national crime groups—Hon Scott Simpson: How many?MATT KING: —10—and 394 kilograms of meth and 644 kilograms of precursors were seized. During the 2016-17 year police responded to a million events 900000 triple-one calls and conducted two million breath tests. So we're not mucking around—or the police are not mucking around; I keep thinking of myself as still a police officer and I'm not. It's been 10 years since I've been out. Total crimes dropped by 1 percent and there was a 20 percent reduction in house burglaries. I recall the days—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry to interrupt the member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. I will resume the Chair at 7.30 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.