Simon Power
National Party Law & Order Spokesman

7 June 2006

Peters wants to give away front line police

A plan by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to give away some of New Zealand’s extra police before they have even been recruited is bizarre, says National’s Law & Order spokesman, Simon Power.

He is commenting after Winston Peters said in Vanuatu that because of the 1,000 extra police agreed to in NZ First’s confidence and supply agreement with Labour ‘we should be able to free up some police people to come here and better facilitate the training and education of the local police force’.

“I wonder if Winston Peters bothered to tell his police spokesman, Ron Mark, about this idea," says Mr Power.

“Mr Mark has been trumpeting long and hard about getting extra police for the front line in New Zealand, so I bet he is not amused to hear his leader is planning to send some of them to Vanuatu.

“Fifty-one officers from this year’s intake have already been earmarked for traffic patrol and now Winston Peters wants to take more off the front line.

“If we have so many spare police that we can send them overseas to train others, why do we need 330 decoy cops, and why are we recruiting officers from the United Kingdom?”

ENDS

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