Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Police)
: I very much welcome the opportunity to go into the Committee stage of the Policing Bill, because this bill contains some of the most significant legislative proposals on policing to come before this House in the last half-century. Fundamentally, this bill is about renewing the New Zealand Police mandate to protect life and property, to maintain law and order, to prevent and to detect crime, to minimise crashes, and to prosecute offenders.
As a Government we have invested heavily in giving the New Zealand Police the resources needed to act on this mandate. We now have a record number of New Zealand Police officers, and more are on the way. They are operating out of over 34 new or refurbished stations around New Zealand, and they are backed by new protective equipment. We have also encouraged a focus on tackling the root causes of crime by early intervention, and by trying to stop the cycle of crime by stopping offending before it begins.
The police, as we all know, have a critical role to play in trying to keep the criminals off our streets and ensuring that we keep people out of the criminal justice system. I believe that the New Zealand Police do a tremendous job.
