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Leader's LetterMarch 2006
Icing on the CakeThis year in the run-up to Christmas, I received an invitation of great importance to me from the Police Association. Expecting it to be a celebration of the upcoming Christmas and New Year holiday, I was pleasantly surprised when asked to cut a very large cake which had been decorated with the words “1000 – Happy Christmas”. It referred, of course, to New Zealand First’s Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Labour government to provide an additional 1,000 front line police officers recruited over the next three years. Furthermore, and just as importantly, there will also be an increase in the number of non-sworn and administrative staff required to provide support to that increased force. This of course is something that New Zealand First has been seeking and promising its supporters for some time. But it is only a start. Opening up a further 1,000 places for training will all be wasted if the force is unable to attract sufficient recruits to fill those spaces. There has to be a perception that policing is still a worthwhile profession, that the rewards are there if you want them, that the risks of the job do not outweigh the attractions of taking on the blue uniform. 
Ron Mark, Greg O’Connor (Police Association President) and police officer Arama Chafe celebrate 1,000 extra police. In the past month there have been several alarming and sickening attacks on police officers. New Zealanders who put on that uniform and swear to protect us do so knowing that they might be putting their own lives in danger. But that is not to say that we, the citizens of New Zealand who employ them and accept their protection as a given, should accept acts of violence against them as being part of the job. It is not. It is right that we should protect them in return. That a person should make a conscious decision to challenge law enforcement officers going about their sworn duty is totally unacceptable, and people who do so need to be made fully aware of the consequences. For that reason I would like to see that penalties for so doing are presently harsh enough, that they are fully applied, and if not, that they will be amended and enforced as necessary. It is a new year, a new session of Parliament. There is much more that I would hope to see come to fruition over the coming years to ensure that our police are at full strength with all the backing and resources that they need, and that policing is once again a profession that draws respect from the public and pride in itself. It is not yet the icing on the cake – but I am proud to have been instrumental in starting the process. Ron Mark MP
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