Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate. Public safety is being put at risk under this Government. The Government has lost control of law and order in New Zealand and is putting New Zealanders' safety at risk. Our streets are becoming less safe. Our police officers are being assaulted more and more often and having firearms presented at them more often. Our corrections officers are being assaulted more often in our prisons. Gangs are taking control of our streets. New Zealanders have had enough and it's time for this Government to take control of law and order in New Zealand.New Zealanders don't deserve to be put at risk on the streets. Under this Government we have seen the number of serious assaults in New Zealand double. In 2017 there were 10681 serious assaults recorded in New Zealand. In 2020 there were 21252 serious assaults on our streets. This is four years of failure by this Government when it comes to law and order. The number of our police officers who are being assaulted has increased. Last year 1348 people were charged with assaulting police officers in New Zealand something that is unbelievable. And do you know what the saddest fact is? Gang members are recruiting faster than the New Zealand Police. There has been a 48 percent increase in gang membership in New Zealand and the Police have only recruited 1300 new police officers under this Government.This Government has blinkers on. They're not interested in the facts they're not interested in the statistics and they're not interested in New Zealanders' safety which is becoming incredibly concerning. I was in Paihia on Thursday for a public meeting where locals business owners community groups the community patrol and wardens in that town turned up saying We don't see the police on our streets." The local police station is not even being manned on a regular basis in that community. Kelvin Davis one of the local members of Parliament up there decided to decline the event after first saying he was going to be there. Five minutes before it started he said he couldn't make it and didn't show up. That was an absolute disgrace for the people of Paihia.What is this Government doing about law and order? Well they promised 1800 new police over three years. It is now 3½ years since they came into office and we've only got 1347 new officers on the beat. Of those 1800 700 were to be focused on tackling gangs and organised crime and how many of them have they delivered? Two hundred and thirty-nine new officers focused on tackling gang and organised crime. Police have not got the resources that this Government promised. New Zealanders have not got the resources that this Government promised.And did you know that at the same time that they haven't delivered on their promise of new police—the 1800 new police—the police training college is sitting empty? They're not taking a new wing of recruits until May of this year and they won't be on the beat until September or later this year. That is unbelievable and unacceptable. The excuse that they're giving for not taking new recruits is that the attrition rate is too low. Well when they started the 1800 programme they said that the attrition rate was too high so they were not going to be able to meet the programme. Now they're saying it's too low. Well New Zealanders have had enough of the excuses and are wanting to see action and delivery from this Government.This Government has an opportunity to take law and order seriously. They need to keep to their word. They need to deliver on their promises. They could bring forward funding to make sure those police are delivered to make sure those police are trained to make sure they've got the tools they need to be able to do their job and keep safe. I find it shocking that police officers are becoming afraid of turning up to jobs because they think it's too risky. They're afraid of having a gun pointed at them when they turn up because they don't have the back-up and the support they need. It's time this Government listened to front-line officers on the street on the beat who are doing the hard work but don't feel the support that they've got from this Government. Then they've got policies coming through saying they can't pursue they can't go and eradicate marijuana they can't do all these other policies they've being doing for years. This needs leadership from the Government. It has its blinkers on when it comes to law and order and I'm calling on this Government to take this issue seriously before those statistics get even worse."