Simon Power
National Party Law & Order Spokesman

14 December 2005

No wonder police won't stay

National’s Law & Order spokesman, Simon Power, says it is no wonder the Police are finding it so hard to retain and replace frontline officers when their human resources practices are in such a shambles.

He is commenting on an answer to him from the Police Minister that eight officers have taken personal grievance cases after being offered jobs in Canterbury but later told there were none available.

“It is clear from this that the Police’s hiring practices are in a shambles. How can you describe it as anything else?

“Eight Auckland officers were offered jobs in Canterbury but when headquarters found out, the offers were cancelled, even though some of the officers had started buying houses in Christchurch.

“They are understandably very angry. They wanted to move, they were told they could, and now they are told they can’t.

“To treat employees this way is very bad practice and a very bad look.

“We have enough trouble retaining experienced officers and attracting people to join up, without shabby human resource practices making it even harder.

“We can only hope that the extra 1,000 frontline staff being recruited over the next three years are treated better and more professionally than these eight officers have been,” Mr Power says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable view is that the government was being deliberately misleading. Are we to think Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is a fool, or a liar? It seems rather early on in his term of office to be facing that unpleasant choice. Yet when Luxon (and senior MP Chris Bishop) tried to defend the indefensible with the same wildly inaccurate claim, there are not a lot of positive explanations left on the table.... More