Another day, another broken promise by the Govt

The Government’s trail of broken promises is set to get longer after Police Minister Stuart Nash admitted that its pledge to put an extra 1800 cops on the beat will be downsized to 1100, National’s Police Spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“All along, the Government has said that it would be adding 1800 cops over three years. In November last year, Stuart Nash confirmed that all 1800 would be sworn frontline officers.

“But in a confusing performance today on Newshub Nation, Mr Nash backtracked and said that only about 1100 of these extra cops would be frontline officers and around 250 would be non-sworn, ‘authorised’ officers.

“And even then, he admitted that this ‘hasn’t been completely decided’ - no doubt in an attempt to give the Government room to further downsize the number of extra frontline cops.

“Mr Nash also admitted that every extra cop on the beat since the election has come from National’s 2017 Safer Communities package which is adding 885 frontline officers over four years.

“So regardless of whether its 1800 or 1100, the Government will probably just put a stamp on National’s 885 additional frontline officers and claim it as its own.

“For all its big talk about boosting police numbers, at the end of the day this is a Government that wants to go soft on crime. It’s more interested in funding free fees for students than in funding extra frontline police to help crack down on criminals.

“With yet another broken promise on its record, how can New Zealanders have any confidence in anything this Government says?”

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