Burglary is a low risk career and will become even more popular if the Government proceeds with cuts to CIB staff numbers in Wellington, Labour police spokesperson George Hawkins said today.

"I have been warning for months that the national police review - a cost-cutting exercise by a National Government desperate to claw back some of the costs of the Incis debacle - would have a devastating effect on the Wellington region.

"Sworn police numbers in the Wellington City area have reduced by 20 percent since 1998 and now the Criminal Investigation Branch could be cut in half.

"There simply won't be enough detectives to investigate all the cases. Crimes like burglary will be noted, filed and never followed up.

"Already just 7 percent of burglaries in Wellington are solved. That percentage is set to fall even further.

"National's cost-cutting will deny the police the ability to respond to 'minor' crime and will leave the people of Wellington without the protection they deserve," George Hawkins said.

© 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