Newsworthy - July 14, 2005

Police numbers - the true position

The Labour Government Minister of Police has made it clear on a number of occasions that the Government is satisfied with the number of frontline police. His comments have included: - "The Police are well resourced" - Question for Oral Answer 3/2/05 - "The Commissioner and I often talk about resources and he is very pleased with what I get him" - Question for Oral Answer 15/2/05 - "I am satisfied that the Police are very well resourced under this Government" - Question for Oral Answer 4/5/05 In fact, when it comes to country comparisons, New Zealand has the poorest population-to-police ratio in the English-speaking world.

When compared to countries such as France, New Zealand comes out having 117% less officers per head of population (255 people per police officer in France - 554 in New Zealand) while it has 72% less than Scotland, 41% less than England/Wales, 30% less than Australia and 26% less than the USA based on police officers per head of population ratios.

The burgeoning bureaucracy

The core public service has grown by around 25% in the past five years. When Crown entities and other state sector organisations are taken into account, the growth is even larger.

There has to be real concern that:

- Overall growth in the public sector has been excessive relative to the growth of the economy and the level of growth in the private sector.

- Too much of the additional resource has been allocated to bureaucracy, with little additional funding finding its way into the provision of additional public services.
- There is massive waste and inappropriate expenditure.
- There has been a loss of focus on the efficient provision of core public services and an undesirable focus on political correctness.
- Since 2001, the annual cost of the public service has risen by over $700 million. The trend is simply unsustainable. We need to arrest the unmanaged growth of the public sector and impose a greater focus on the delivery of core public services.

National's horse racing policy

Horse racing aficionados will have seen on the New Zealand race tracks in recent weeks the work of an action team which has stencilled "fair taxes" on the rumps of the competing horses.

There are significant inequalities in the different way racing and casino profits are taxed. National has agreed to deal with that disparity

Racing, breeding and horse ownership are facets of a unique agribusiness that contributes to our overall economy through employment, exports and related industries.

New Zealand racing contributes $1.5 billion per annum to the economy, supports 18,300 full-time jobs and exports $130 million worth of horses.

But thoroughbred racing and standard-bred racing have been in relative decline for some years. In part at least this is because the gaming duty takes about six times as much out of the average dollar bet on racing as it does out of the average dollar bet in a casino.

National's policy for the sector includes a plan to bring gaming duties paid by the racing industry into line with those paid by casinos, at an estimated cost of around $25 million annually.

The Anti-smacking Bill

The Government has decided to support a Members Bill to remove the defence of "reasonable force" in section 59 of the Crimes Act. The section currently reads: (1) Every parent of a child and ...every person in the place of the parent of a child is justified in using force by way of correction towards the child, if the force used is reasonable in the circumstances. (2) The reasonableness of the force used is a question of fact. The effect of removing the provision is to criminalise parents. They will commit an offence under section 194 of the Crimes Act of assault on a child under the age of 14. The penalty for the offence is two years in jail.

No one doubts that child abuse is an issue that must be addressed by society but criminalising parents is not the answer.

Some have suggested that reasonable force should be defined but that is in fact very difficult to do. I noted on a recent "Eye to Eye" programme that the sort of issues which would arise would be whether there should be a statutory ban on weapons, head blows, striking with closed fists etc.

Veterans Gold Card

For the period that I was Defence Spokesman I pushed the concept of a Veterans' Gold Card.

It now forms part of our policy for the next election. The Gold Card will provide a range of benefits where there is established need, including priority access to hospital services, such as surgical treatment, and access to Housing New Zealand accommodation and other services.

Veterans with appropriate qualifying service and who receive New Zealand Superannuation, or are entitled to a war disablement pension, will be eligible for the Veterans' Gold Card.

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