The Government has committed $226 million to train an extra 500 police officers by the end of next year.
Corrections’ budget has increased by nearly $150m to handle rising prisoner numbers, with plans for a new mega-prison.
Police and Corrections funding announcements include $1.9b for Corrections and a focus on front-line police boosts.
The jury is still out on Budget 2024 among police officers and prison staff.
On Thursday, the Government committed $226 million to train an extra 500 police officers by the end of next year. The coalition agreement between National and New Zealand First had already promisedto boost police by 500 officers in the first two years.
It was a pledge labelled “ambitious” earlier this year by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster amid attrition and recruitment challenges such as Australian police attracting Kiwi staff, plus higher wages in the private sector luring away some officers from the thin blue line.
The Police Association welcomed the announcement of funding for an extra 500 police offices in Budget 2024 - with a caveat.
“We need to establish that 500 is an actual extra 500 which will boost the front line,” said Police Association vice-president Paul Ormerod.
”The devil’s in the detail.”
Associate Police Minister Casey Costello’s media release on Thursday said the boost is for an extra 500 constabulary staff above the 10,211 sworn officers when the Government was sworn in on November 27, 2023.
However, Ormerod said there were 230 vacancies at the time, and it was unclear whether the boost would also include filling those vacancies, which would mean the extra 500 is in fact an extra 270.
The police union is welcoming the pledge in Budget 2024 to add 500 new officers - as long as it represents an actual boost of 500 cops and part of the increase isn't already accounted for. Photo / Hayden Woodward
A fact sheet released with the Budget on Thursday said the extra 500 is solely for constabulary staff and not for authorised officers.
It will be achieved when the police have a constabulary workforce, excluding authorised officers, of 10,711 full-time-equivalents, the fact sheet said.
A spokesman for Costello said the 10,211 number was the tally of actual police officers who were serving on the day the Government was sworn in.
”The Government commitment is to 500 extra actual, real police officers,” the spokesman said.
Ormerod said he believed the Budget would be welcomed by the rank and file, bruised by a lengthy pay negotiation process now headed to arbitration.
”There is a focus on the front line which is great news,” he said.
Ormerod said many police officers were still weighing up whether they would head to Australia or move into the private sector to seek higher pay.
The Herald has sought comment from police on the exact number of constabulary staff currently on the force, but as of press time had not received a reply.
Meanwhile, the union for prison officers is disappointed at the lack of specific funding in the Budget to tackle the Corrections staffing crisis.
“It’s just a non-event Budget,” said Corrections Association president Floyd du Plessis.
He said the union was disappointed at the lack of specific funding initiatives targeted at retaining staff.
Corrections has in recent years battled high staffing turnover and faced difficulties attracting and retaining prison officers.
Late last year, Mt Eden Corrections Facility in Auckland, the country’s busiest prison, was about 60 officers short of the 469 equivalent full-time positions required for the facility to be fully staffed.
The 2024 Corrections Budget includes an increase in funding of nearly $150m to respond to increasing prisoner numbers, Budget documents show.
Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell announced in May the revival of a plan to build a mega-prison at Waikeria in the Waikato, with Mitchell trumpeting an 810-bed extension.
A statement released after the press conference announcing the prison extension clarified the 810 beds would be in addition to the 600 already announced by the previous Government, following criticism from Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Mitchell’s also pledged $78m to extend rehabilitation programmes to include prisoners on remand, who have not yet been tried or sentenced. They are often ineligible for the programmes available for sentenced prisoners.
Du Plessis said the Corrections Association supported the boost for remand rehabilitation programmes.
In a statement, the New Zealand Law Society said it welcomed the funding for rehabilitation for remand prisoners.
“However, rehabilitative programmes for sentenced prisoners do not appear to have received any meaningful increase in funding,” the Law Society said.
It had “serious concerns” about whether there would be sufficient resources for rehabilitative programmes for sentenced prisoners.
Law Society vice-president David Campbell expressed concern that Budget 2024 provided no further investment into the legal aid system following the increase to the hourly rates in 2022.
“We have been clear about this with successive Governments now, and this year we provided further evidence to show that the costs of providing legal aid are increasing,” Campbell said.
“Without fair remuneration, we will see a continuing reduction in the number of lawyers willing to provide legal aid. At a time when the judiciary is working hard to clear case backlogs, insufficient lawyers to assist the public will result in poor outcomes for families, individuals, and victims.”
Several key parts of the law and order side of Budget 2024 had already been announced.
In the weeks leading up to the Sixth National Government’s first Budget, Mitchell made a series of law and order announcements.
They included $1.9 billion for Corrections, announced after the department was asked to find $100m of savings, or 6.5 per cent of its annual budget.
The coat of arms at the High Court in Wellington. Photo / NZPA
In 2018, Labour scaled back National’s plans for a 2000 to 3000-bed prison, criticising it as an “American-style mega-prison”.
Instead, the then-Labour Government announced an extra 500-bed prison with a further 100 beds for prisoners requiring mental health treatment.
A week after the prison announcement on May 6, Commissioner Coster announced a National Gang Unit standing alongside Mitchell.
A continuation of Operation Cobalt, the unit would be a dedicated, specialised task force of 25-30 people with ring-fenced staff of up to seven staff in every police district across the country, Coster said.
