16 June 2009 Media Statement
‘Tough-talking’ Collins cowers in Parliament
The refusal by Police and Corrections Minister to answer a question in Parliament today about a 10 percent cut to police
resources shows she talks tough in public, but runs a mile when put under pressure, says Labour law and order
spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.
“She preened herself in Parliament today answering a patsy question as Corrections Minister about so-called advances in
the management of offenders on parole, but when I asked her a perfectly legitimate question about how the axing of 300
police cars would improve the management of such offenders, she point blank refused to answer,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
“Instead, she said I should ask the Police Minister that question. Well, she is the Police Minister, of course. She’s
ducked issues like this before.
“What made her feeble response worse today is that she is taking off to Australia for the rest of the week, and won’t be
around to face up to the cuts she has ordered at NZ Police,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
“Police are now waking up to the reality that what Judith Collins promises, she doesn’t deliver. Police can’t do their
job properly if they are denied resources, and this fact will soon become apparent to the public too.
“National denied police the infrastructure they needed during the 1990s, the decade of the cardboard cut-out cops. Now
Judith Collins is going down the same road, and won’t answer the hard questions.”
ENDS