Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mark Ron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:619;Page:14889] 
9.  
RON MARK (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister of Police 
: Is he satisfied that police are sufficiently resourced in order to respond to all facets of crime? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Minister of Police) 
: 
 Generally yes. The budget exceeds $1 billion crime is tracking down resolution rates are improving steadily and the road toll is falling. This contrasts with when National was in Government. Under the Martin review National tried to slash 540 police jobs and save $35 million a year. 
Ron Mark 
: What confidence should a Wellington woman have that that is the case when having reported the theft of her wallet on 1 July she provided between 13 and 20 July specific evidence that might have led to an arrest repeatedly called the police to ascertain progress and on 21 July out of frustration at the lack of any response wrote to the police reiterating the details she had previously supplied and urging that they be investigated and still has not yet had a reply to that letter? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: If the member had been wise he would have put that down in his primary question and he would have received an answer. This way he does not. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the Minister’s last sentence could have been phrased a little differently. The first part of the answer about putting the details down as a primary question was perfectly in order but I invite the Minister to complete the answer after that part. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: It would be sensible if people actually tried to tell the Minister what they wanted information on. They would then get their questions answered. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The essential part of the question was: what confidence should the woman have that the resources are there? I am not asking him to explain the case. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister addressed the question and he did it in his way. 
Moana Mackey 
: Has he seen any claims around police funding? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: Yes the president of the Police Association Greg O’Connor  claimed on the  
Holmes 
 show this week that 25 percent of the funding is traffic. But he said that if we ask most district commanders it is about 70 percent of the effort and the rest of the policing is virtually having to be done out of petty cash. Mr O’Connor damages his own credibility and that of his membership with such blatant rubbish. We spend $1.06 billion on policing annually and of that $826 million goes on crime reduction. That is hardly petty cash. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Surely the concentration of resources and additional staff on traffic enforcement has been to the detriment of general front-line policing and is that not the explanation for why in his own police district the police are responding only to life-threatening situations and in about half the required safe period? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: All police have responsibilities to investigate crime and to stop it where they see it and that is happening. I can tell members that in my own district crime is dropping dramatically as it is over New Zealand. 
Rod Donald 
: Does the Minister accept that significant amounts of police time are being wasted for no good reason especially in the light of the study published this year by Reinarman Cohen and Kaal in the  
American Journal of Public Health 
 which shows that the decriminalisation of cannabis does not increase its use and that making cannabis illegal does not reduce its use; if not why not? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I must say that I am amazed that people sort out the type of crime they think should be all right. In the case of the Greens it is cannabis and in the case of other parties it is road traffic fraud and all those sorts of things. I have to say that police concentrate on everything and the resource is well used. 
Marc Alexander 
: Is the real reason the Minister is under-resourcing the real needs of police that attaining higher apprehension and resolution rates is pointless when there is a 35000 case backlog in the courts when some offenders will never face justice and when prisons and the probation service are overflowing; if not why not? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: This Government is really attacking crime very very hard. The money is going there. I have to thank the Minister of Finance for being so generous. The police have never had it so good. I must thank my colleague the Minister of Corrections for building more prisons and of course unlike the Nats I am welcoming one in my own electorate. 
Gordon Copeland 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I doubt whether the Minister really addressed the question. The question basically asked whether the resourcing of police is frustrated by the significant backlog in the courts. I do not think that question was addressed in the answer. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I am not the Minister for Courts. 
Ron Mark 
: Can the Minister tell the House that if a citizen had an unlisted number of a woman friend in her wallet and her wallet was stolen and then an unknown man called her friend on that number leaving behind on her caller identification his phone number from which he called would it not be relatively easy for the police to follow that lead or is it truly the case that the police are overworked do not have enough manpower have case workloads that are too high and do not have the funding to be able to purchase the information they need? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I have told that member many times that the police are better funded now than they have ever been. They do have the resources. If the member wants whodunnits and “what ifs” he should read Sherlock Holmes. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Seeing the Minister has put into contention the issue of slashing police numbers why was it that he wrote in a recent  
Sunday News 
 article under his name that police numbers were slashed when Winston Peters was Treasurer; and will he resign if it is not true? 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: What was true was that when the work was started on the Martin review he was Treasurer. When it was implemented he had already broken up with the Nats. He had had enough of them and I think: “Good on him!” 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am trying to ask this Minister a very simple question. He cannot duck out by citing some review that did not take place in respect of its finality when I was there or any other decision. He knows full well that the greatest police numbers we ever had in training were in 1997-98. I am asking him now seeing he wrote that in his column whether he will resign if it is not true—yes or no? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: He does not have to answer yes or no. He has to address the question. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: The Martin review was started when that member was Treasurer and Mr Mark was the whip. Of course it went on and it took this Government to pull it out and start reinstating jobs. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I seek leave to table the evidence and press releases of that time demonstrating that the highest police intake of all times was when I was Treasurer. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that information. Is there any objection? There is not. 
Documents not tabled. 
Rod Donald 
: I seek leave to table the report from the  
American Journal of Public Health 
 that states that making cannabis illegal does not reduce its use. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.