Mark Ron: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Mark Ron: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak in reply to the Prime Minister’s statement and I have to say her speech lacked considerably any real regard for one of the greatest crises that face our nation today—that is law and order. Our law enforcement officers our courts and our justice system are facing a crisis. 
Indeed it is with sadness that I tell the House that while I have been sitting here I have received a text message telling me that my nephew whose 21st birthday party I helped celebrate over Christmas is now lying in hospital—the victim of a senseless bashing in Christchurch City. It is only when a member of one’s family is lying in a hospital with a fractured skull—a young man with so much promise hoping to try out for the Canterbury colts team this year—that one realises that this country is being governed by a party that does not on the face of the Prime Minister’s statement seem to share the concerns of New Zealand First about our young people about law and order and about lawlessness. We have heard a lot of rhetoric and political claptrap from this Government over the last 5 years and with the bumbling incompetence of the Minister of Police the naivety of the Minister of Corrections and the political correctness of the entire Cabinet of this Government we have seen no progress on law and order as demanded by 92 percent of New Zealanders in the last referendum on the issue. The sad facts are one violent crime is up and unfortunately today my family has become one of thousands of families that are faced with this issue. The rate of violent crime is up clearance rates are down and public confidence in the New Zealand Police is falling rapidly. That worries me because I like four other members of the New Zealand First caucus have family who are in blue who are in uniform and walking the beat. 
I ask myself the same questions that every other New Zealanders asks: why are we in this situation; why are we facing this crisis? The first answer I guess is that the Prime Minister does not seem to care and that is why her speech had only one paragraph on the issue. The second answer is that the police seem to be lacking any strong direction or determined resolve to stamp out crime effectively and to nail those individuals who choose a life of crime as their career path and lifestyle. I easily justify that statement by pointing out that despite all the promises of members opposite over 9 years in Opposition and 5 years in Government they have failed to nail the gangs. We read that in Wairoa Taneatua Palmerston North and all over this country the gangs still thumb their nose with impunity at the law and get away with it. Even worse we are bending over backwards to deal with their “sensitivities” and their “cultural needs”. What a lot of humbug and claptrap! 
This Government is failing to deal with those issues. Look at the policing priorities. We saw that over the Christmas period. The Government says that officers are out there on the roads trying to save lives but statistics show that fatalities increased—right alongside revenue collecting. The Government has police officers out there hiding behind bushes with radar cameras nabbing normally law-abiding citizens because this Government wants to increase its $6 billion surplus. 
If this Government wants an indication of where we are going in the future it should take note of what the Manchester bobbies are saying. Everyone says that New Zealand is 5 years behind the rest of the world; well we should take note of what the Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd is telling his officers. He is telling them to stop targeting speeding drivers and to start catching hardened criminals. He has warned staff that continuing to pressure motorists through the use of speed cameras will see many law-abiding people develop an anti-police feeling. Guess what! That is precisely what I warned against months and months ago and it is precisely what is happening here in this country. Should we be surprised that when a police officer called for help to apprehend a violent offender people refused to go to his aid? Should we be surprised in the light of recent revelations and allegations that there is growing scepticism towards explanations by the police as to why they are out there ticketing motorists? 
No one believes the Government. No one believes the police. No one accepts that the Government’s priorities on law and order are the right ones. People want to see hardened crims caught and locked up. That is a Government responsibility. That is George Hawkins’ responsibility. That is Helen Clark’s responsibility. They need to sort out their priorities and help the police get on with the real business of catching real crooks. 
But when we do catch them we put them on home detention. The Minister tells us that the system is tight and controlled and that the Government has a good grip on those on home detention. Well I warned the Minister that these guys are gambling on dope and living the life of Riley. Then I told the Minister that a man on home detention had died of a P overdose but he knew nothing about it. He accused me of making it up and we found out it was true. Home detention is a rort; so is parole. Now we have another example of another man who was paroled out into the community—supposedly rehabilitated. We get all “touchy-feely” and cosy but he has offended again and been charged and arrested. So the story goes on. 
But that is not new. We had a case the week before of a man who had been convicted not only of murder but of two counts of attempted murder and within months of his being accepted as having been rehabilitated and put out on parole he was recalled to jail because of a sexual offence. What is wrong with this Government? Do those MPs and Cabinet Ministers not have children not have families? Do they not understand the trauma they are wreaking upon victims and their families? How many times does the Sensible Sentencing Trust have to come to Parliament to plea for parole to be tightened up? The sad fact is we have politically correct puppets appointed to the Parole Board including members of the Labour Party who share the Government’s own “touch-feely” philosophies. So they approve the parole of these people and let them out into the community. 
Well enough is enough! This country is sick of it and has had a gutsful. Over this year New Zealand First will hold this Government to account on its failure in law and order its failure to address lawlessness its failure to deal with the gangs and its failed priorities. We are going to make sure of that. I will continue to deal with the Minister of Corrections who is at best very very naive. I told him what was going on in Canterbury prisons. He refused to accept it. Now we have a “goon squad” inquiry. He can stand up and make all the allegations he likes about my putting out inaccurate information; nothing I have put to this House has been inaccurate. Denying me a personal statement in the House will come back on the Government because I will not allow one Labour MP to make a personal statement so long as I sit in this chair. Those members have denied me my right of reply. And I am not going to use this debate to do that. We have told this House. 
What of youth crime? Well now we have the police coming out today expressing their frustrations about youth crime and I am saying here today that I will be putting in the ballot a member’s bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility to make these young people realise they do know the difference between right and wrong and they will be held accountable for adult crimes as adults. That bill is drafted. It will be in the House. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: What age? Should it be 10 or 9? 
RON MARK 
: I am offering 10 as the age; that is what I am going to ask the select committee to consider. We will talk that through and we will lower the age. I want to see these young recidivist offenders locked up as they should be. We have had enough of the family group counselling sessions. The police are at their wits’ end. I have heard this time and time again. Today’s article tells me that this Government will not act to help the police and will not deal with the nonsense of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act and the Crimes Act which allow these young offenders to do as has happened to my nephew—to bash him over the back of the head and drop him on the ground with the result that he is in hospital with a fractured skull. Well I am sorry but that is it—endgame! My member’s bill is in the ballot and my challenge to the Government is to take it out and itself introduce it into the House as a Government bill and help these families deal with these wayward youth offenders. It should help the New Zealand Police by giving them the tools to do the job; either do that or sit there and rattle on like Clayton Cosgrove do nothing for anybody and be held accountable for it on election day which is coming sooner than those members think.