Govt ‘changing rules’ on 1800 police

WELLINGTON: The Government is being accused of changing the rules for its major promise of adding 1800 police this parliamentary term.

However, Police Minister Stuart Nash said the ‘‘1800 more police’’ and ‘‘1800 new police’’ were two independent goals.

Mr Nash has repeatedly talked about the aspirational goal of 1800 more police as a net number, meaning that it accounted for officers who left the force.

But in Question Time yesterday, Mr Nash said the Government commitment to ‘‘strive towards adding 1800 new police officers over three years’’ in the LabourNew Zealand First coalition agreement did not account for attrition.

NZ First leader Winston Peters asked Mr Nash: ‘‘Can the Minister of Police confirm that what the Government, in this coalition agreement, promised was adding 1800 new police officers over three years — that means newly trained, and that’s the target we’re going to meet very shortly?’’

Mr Nash replied: ‘‘I can indeed confirm that, and I will also confirm that we’ve done it in under three years — in fact, just over two years.’’

This followed Mr Peters’ comments yesterday that the 1800 target was only about new recruits, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s unequivocal answer during Question Time on Tuesday that the 1800 target would be met this term.

Ms Ardern’s answer caused a stir because previous statements from Mr Nash, police and the Police Association have all taken account of attrition in the 1800 target, which would mean the Government was less than halfway towards achieving the target with only one year to go.

As recently as Tuesday, Mr Nash told the Police Association annual conference about the promise of ‘‘1800 more police’’.

‘‘So far we have graduated around 1685 since becoming government, which equates to around 892 more staff over and above attrition,’’ Mr Nash said in his speech.

‘‘We said we would strive for 1800 and it is aspirational . . .

‘‘My promise to you is that if we don’t reach our numbers in three years, we will keep training new officers until we do reach this target.’’

When asked about the 1800 new recruits in a written parliamentary question last year, Mr Nash said the target was about additional, not new, officers.

Similarly, a police article from June 2018 said: ‘‘Growth of 1800 constabulary staff requires 900 recruits a year.’’

The latest edition

of the Police Association magazine included a graph to show 747 additional constabulary staff so far towards the 1800 target.

National police spokesman Brett Hudson said there was ‘‘no way’’ the Government was going to make its target under its own rules, so it changed the rules.

‘‘The minister’s moved the goal posts.

‘‘He knows he can’t deliver on his promise so he’s changing the rules.

‘‘Too many times he’s said that the way to measure the 1800 target is to include attrition.

‘‘It’s another broken promise to New Zealanders.’’

But Mr Nash said the goal of 1800 more police was ‘‘in addition’’ to the goal in the LabourNZ First agreement, for which only Ms Ardern and Mr Peters were designated to comment.

‘‘Police are currently funded to address attrition.

‘‘I expect them to achieve real growth of 1800 frontline officers.

‘‘There are now almost 900 more frontline officers on the ground than there were at the start of the 201718 year.

‘‘However the Government cannot control turnover, retirements, resignations or officers’ decisions to move to parttime roles.’’ — The New Zealand Herald