National leader making dishonest claims about law and order

National leader John key continues to make dishonest and misleading claims about law & order issues, Police and Justice Minister Annette King said today.

“If John Key cannot be trusted to tell the truth about their law & order policy, what can he be trusted to be truthful about?”

Mr Key, speaking at the Police Association annual conference today, repeated his claim that National would put 600 extra police on the street by 2011.

“What he doesn’t say is that 380 of these are already coming, under Labour’s recruitment campaign, and will be trained by June next year.

“What National is actually promising is an extra 220 police, and that’s 75 a year, or six extra per year per police district. That’s a miserable increase, compared to the 2500 extra police, almost 300 a year, that Labour has recruited in the past nine years.

“The biggest hoax is that National’s promised funding for the extra 220 police is only about half the money that will be needed if these extra police are to be equipped properly.”

Ms King said that Mr Key has also continued to tout his insulting victim compensation scheme, a scheme that amounts to about $50 per victim.

“It is a cruel hoax on victims. Labour believes that any scheme that is set up has got to offer victims real compensation, not just token payments. It’s why we have a major investigation into compensation taking place right now.”

Mr Key also repeated his assertion that violence has increased 47 percent since Labour came into office.

“He knows, but won’t admit it, that the main driver of the increased reporting of violence is family violence. Mr Key wants to frighten New Zealanders into believing that extra violence is happening on the streets. In that way he minimises what happens to New Zealand women and children who are the main victims of family violence.

“On one hand Mr Key pretends he’s on the side of victims. One the other, he turns a blind eye to what is happening in our homes, all over New Zealand.”

Ms King said almost all the issues that Mr Key raised in his speech today covered areas that Labour already has well in hand.

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