11 August 2005

Judith Collins Clevedon MP

No Show by Hawkins

Last night I attended a meeting called by the Pride of Papakura Action Group in regard to unruly behaviour, mainly tagging, in the Rosehill area of Papakura. This is an issue that affects all of our electorate as well as being nationwide.

The Minister of Police, Hon George Hawkins, was too busy to attend the meeting and sent a letter, that was too long to be read in full at the meeting, listing what he had implemented in his time as Mayor of Papakura.

The problems discussed at this meeting were exactly the same as the problems raised in 2002. This community is sick of the namby pamby treatment being handed down to criminals. They want what any civilised society wants.

Law abiding citizens have had enough of kid glove treatment for young criminals who are serving an apprenticeship for a life time of crime.

In late 2003, the Police Ministry chose to stop our Papakura Police from getting taggers to clean up their mess and wear jackets with "Police Diversion" on them. Apparently, the public parading of their crimes was seen as hurting their feelings. At that time, as your electorate MP, I strongly supported our local Police (Papakura Courier December 3, 2003, page 13) but no other political party would publicly stand up for the community.

Last night we heard of the terror that is being inflicted on our good citizens by about 30 youths including a 15 year old walking crime wave.

Minister George Hawkins promised us more Police for Papakura. So far, he has delivered none. The Police have been told they cannot get anymore until next year. We need more Police now and we need to back our Police to do their job.

ENDS

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