The town has a lot going for it and locals are working hard to make it thrive. I have always said that if you stand beside the lighthouse and look down Wairoa's main street, you will struggle to find a more picturesque town anywhere in this wonderful country.
That's why I consider the attack on Wairoa police to be an attack on the values of our local community.
Police and their families are a permanent part of Wairoa and are committed to living in the town they serve. I am very concerned for the safety of local officers and their families. I know some of these officers and am relieved no one was injured.
I discussed the shootings with police commanders in Wellington immediately after the attack.
This is one of the reasons we are increasing police numbers, including in Wairoa. Police have already deployed extra staff and resources into Wairoa in the past few months given the gang presence in the town.
In the past few days there has been a heightened police presence in the area, including specialist officers from the Armed Offenders Squad, to search for the gunman.
Locals should take this as a reassuring sign that police are prioritising the safety of the community. Police have also been meeting the mayor and talking to iwi and other representatives from the community.
Police are getting a huge amount of support from locals. This is not something most Wairoa people want to see in their town and they are upset and concerned that police have been targeted.
One of the objectives of our firearms reforms is to stop weapons falling into the wrong hands.
Since March, police have seized more than 1400 firearms from gangs and others who hold them unlawfully. Every month police turn up to 200 incidents where a firearm is involved.
Police intelligence indicates most illegally held firearms are stolen from legitimate owners. The use of firearms affects everyone in our community, whether they own one or not. Successive governments have known for decades that our gun laws are dangerously out of date.
Sadly small town New Zealand is not immune from gangs and gun crime and methamphetamine. We know from the wastewater testing programme that Wairoa is struggling with high levels of meth use.
Unfortunately the last government let police numbers fall and failed to respond when gangs started moving here from Australia in 2011 to exploit the meth trade. Thanks to support from New Zealand First we now have the highest number of frontline police in our history.
I go to police graduations at the Royal NZ Police College every month. The October graduation means we have deployed 1745 constables since we took office.
That means the growth in frontline officers is about 940 extra police, after taking account of those who have retired. The police workforce is the largest it has ever been. The new constables can't come soon enough.
* Stuart Nash is the MP for Napier and the Minister of Police.
