John Armstrong: Opposition MPs have Hawkins in their sights

After the country's top police officer had boldly claimed people are more worried about being hurt in a traffic accident than being attacked, robbed or sexually assaulted, his political boss in the Beehive was always on a hiding to nothing.

Hardly believing their luck that George Hawkins was not reshuffled out of the police portfolio, Opposition parties have quickly singled him out as the perfect slow-moving election-year target.

They rounded on him last week for the time it took police to charge Tuhoe activist Tame Iti with firearms offences. Yesterday, the hapless minister was in the gun over the alleged failure of police highway patrols to respond to emergency 111 calls.

Earlier in the day, Police Commissioner Rob Robinson had backed deploying police resources for such patrols, remarking that every time his staff carried out public surveys, people responded that their No 1 concern was being killed or maimed on the roads.

This was something of a gift for Opposition MPs. They could safely display a hefty dose of scepticism towards Mr Robinson's assertion because they know the public is unlikely to believe him either.

It hardly helped Mr Robinson's case that Mr Hawkins did not seem to have the details of these surveys when questioned in Parliament. But then it was a pretty standard afternoon for Mr Hawkins.

One moment, he was waving away an Opposition attack with warrior-like impunity; the next, he was drowning in seeming indifference to becoming the Opposition's punch-bag. Not knowing quite which Mr Hawkins they are going to get must mean heart-stopping moments for his Labour Party colleagues.

He began the afternoon on a roll, blowing away allegations from NZ First's Ron Mark surrounding the failure of highway patrols to respond to two crime-related emergencies.

Next up was National's law and order spokesman, Tony Ryall, who focused on Mr Robinson's claim and asked Mr Hawkins whether he was seriously trying to tell Parliament that women were more worried about a speeding car than being attacked in their home.

With a firm "yes", Mr Hawkins replied he would table information showing people were more stressed about being in a car accident than having their house burgled.

But it was Mr Ryall who revealed the source of this information was a "victimisation survey" conducted in 2001, which actually found people were only marginally more worried about being in an accident caused by a drunk driver than being burgled.

And a higher percentage of women were "very worried" by the prospect of being sexually assaulted or raped than being in a traffic accident.

If the less-than-conclusive findings left Government MPs feeling queasy, Act's Rodney Hide then reminded the House of some prior reasoning by Mr Hawkins for deploying police resources on highway patrols - that "criminals are often bad drivers", and, that by stopping them, police could curtail offending.

Mr Hawkins was unrepentant. "I stand by what I said. Criminals use the roads the same as anyone else."

By this stage, National MPs were enjoying themselves so much they had forgotten last week's embarrassment over the sacking of Katherine Rich.

Gerry Brownlee sought leave for a motion of no confidence in Mr Hawkins, knowing full well the Government was bound to refuse it.

But he did not count on Labour's Michael Cullen retaliating with a likewise motion on Don Brash, whose handling of Mrs Rich has been under scrutiny within National.

Although that briefly silenced National MPs, the headache that is Mr Hawkins remains.