Milne to lead Fed Farmers
New calls for cops to be armed
West Coast dairy farmer Katie Milne is the new Federated Farmers’ National President — and the first woman in the Federation’s 118-year history to hold the presidency.
Milne succeeds William Rolleston who steps aside after his three-year term, the farmer-funded organisation said in a statement.
Milne was Dairy Woman of the Year and a Rural Woman of Influence in 2015.
Manawatu dairy farmer Andrew Hoggard was elected national vice-president while South Canterbury farmer Miles Anderson takes over as National Meat and Fibre chair.
Waikato farmer Chris Lewis takes over as national dairy industry chair. — Jamie Gray There are fresh calls for all police officers to be armed as New Zealand faces a “second wave” of drug and organised crime with significant international ties, a new report claims.
The Police Association’s views on police and law and order policies for the 2017 general election were released today in a nearly 30-page paper.
In the report, Police Association president Chris Cahill wrote there were several key areas which needed to be addressed by all political parties.
The proliferation of illegal firearms, an increase in assaults on police, and the “ever expanding methamphetamine industry” were major problems, he said.
To combat the issues, the association said it wanted government policy to support frontline officers carrying Tasers fulltime, and to support the general arming of police.
“Tasers are not sufficient to deal safely with the threat of a firearm — they simply do not have sufficient range, or a high enough rate of effectiveness, to confront every threat,” the report said.
The calls for police to be armed fulltime come after yesterday’s Independent Police Conduct Authority finding that the Waikato Armed Offenders Squad was justified in shooting an armed offender who pulled a gun on a police officer.
Police claim it was not unusual to find a firearm in a vehicle during routine traffic stops, during searches, drug operations and calls for service from the public, the report read.