Prime Minister Chris Hipkins with Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate at the City Safe Camera Control room. Photo / Mike Scott
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was campaigning in the Waikato today, where he addressed the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and Industry, visited the Ruakura Superhub Kmart Distribution Centre and the City Safe Camera Control room, and made a new law and order policy announcement.
Hipkins announced that if elected, a Labour Government would deliver an extra 300 frontline police officers for the country.
Speaking from Hamilton with Minister of Police and Minister of Justice Ginny Andersen, Hipkins also promised new ways to crack down on gang convoys and strengthen legal protections against stalking and harassment.
“We know that one of the things that we can do that really helps to tackle crime in our community is to make sure we got more cops on the beat and that those police have the tools they need in order to be able to tackle crime.
“While in Government we delivered 1800 new police officers... We will build on our achievement by delivering an additional 300 officers in the next term, ensuring there’s at least one officer for every 470 New Zealanders. This will be a huge improvement on the one-in 541 ratio in 2017,” Hipkins said.
How many of the new police constables would be deployed to the Waikato would be up to the police to allocate, Hipkins said. Of the 300 new police officers, 50 would be graduating in the first year. The new police officers would be constables, with full powers of arrest.
“The police have been doing a great job of following up on youth offending, they’ve also been doing a great job of making sure that... they are cracking down on gang activity... and we’re backing the police to continue with that job.”
The policy would cost $124 million over the four-year forecast period, with $9 million spent in the first year.
As another part of the new policy, Labour would introduce a law that would make ram raiding an offence with a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and include the ability of 12-13-year-olds to be accountable in the Youth Court.
Further, the new policy includes legislation changes to specifically target convoys that have an “intent to intimidate the public” and are “disrupting people going about their daily lives”, Anderson said.
“This [legislation] is... for police to use as a way of taking those vehicles and restoring law and order.”
While the newly proposed legislation is targeted at gang convoys, when asked if this would also apply to Brian Tamaki and his Freedoms NZ protests, Andersen said it would cover “large-scale convoys that are stopping people from going about their daily lives”.
Another part of the new policy is strengthened legal protections against stalking and harassment, as well as a review of the reparation system, to speed up payments for victims.
“We’ve established a new criminal offence for strangulation, tripled funding for the Victims Assistance Scheme and doubled funding for Victim Support. Recently passed legislation also provides more rights and protections to victims of family and sexual violence,” Hipkins said.
“We will go further for victims in relation to stalking and harassment by modernising our laws, to bring them in line with overseas jurisdictions. This will include exploring the possibility of creating an offence for stalking with a penalty of imprisonment.”
Prior to the policy announcement, Hipkins visited Hamilton’s City Safe camera control room operations which he described as “very impressive”.
“I’m very pleased the government and council could partner to make it happen.
“[Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate and I] just had a good conversation about the various community safety initiatives that we’ve been working on with the Hamilton City Council over the last year or so as the result of the partnership approach that we have taken to tackling crime in this area.
“So, things like extra CCTV cameras, extra community safety initiatives - that includes better urban design and so on. We have co-funded a range of initiatives with the council which are now starting to deliver real benefits in terms of community safety and that’s the approach that we’re committed to continuing with.”
Earlier this morning, Hipkins attended the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce and Industry conference at The Pā at the University of Waikato where he joined chamber members for an address and question and answer session.
In his address, Hipkins said it has been “an interesting year” so far and he acknowledged it has been difficult for New Zealand.
“It has been economically challenging, but I also think there is reason for optimism and confidence.”
He said despite the challenges thrown at New Zealand, the country’s economy had grown faster out of the Covid-19 recession than a number of others, including Australia and the US.
“We should be proud of that. It’s a testament to the resilience of New Zealand businesses. It also shows what we can achieve if we work together.”
He also highlighted that there are more people in employment than ever before.
“Unemployment has been below 4 per cent for 24 consecutive months. This only happened twice in the last 30 years.”
Looking ahead, Hipkins said that New Zealand had the potential to become a “smart, modern and green economy”.
“We have a number of natural strengths - our natural beauty, our cultural identity, our reputation for innovation, the fact that we have some of the smartest farmers and greatest traders in the world - these are things in our favour.”
Hipkins also showed himself optimistic a couple of hours later, when he was confronted about recent polls and asked if he would step down as Prime Minister if Labour went below 30 per cent.
“If that happens, you can ask me after the election. I’m not focused on losing, I’m focused on winning. My campaign is just getting started.”