Nash wanted more money for police
Police Minister Stuart Nash received $216.5 million less than he asked for in order to bring in an extra 1800 officers over three years.
But Nash says he believes he will be able to meet the goal and a failure to deliver on the ‘‘ambitious’’ coalition target would not be due to funding.
The Labour-NZ First coalition agreement promises to ‘‘strive towards’’ 1800 extra police in the next three years. Nash has been clear this was an ‘‘ambitious’’ target but one he believed he could meet and was continuing to work towards.
Documents seen by Stuff show Nash asked Cabinet for $533.1m over four years – made up of
$515.3m in operating funding and
$17.8m capital.
This bid was for the three-year rollout of the 1800 extra cops, which he said was his preferred timeframe, and the option that most rapidly delivered the coalition goal.
However, in the Budget 2018, Nash received $298.8m in new operating funding and $17.8m capital for the police over the next four years. In addition, $159.7m of new funding is provided in
2022-23.
The documents show Nash also put forward an option for a four-year rollout of the 1800 extra cops, which would mean reaching the goal by June 2022.
To achieve this goal, Nash would need $396.2m over four years – $346.4m of operating funding, and $17.8m capital, he said. This option also included out-year costs of $156.1m in
2022-23.
The prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the minister of finance had all confirmed the Government’s commitment to striving towards 1800 new officers this term. Additional funding will be sought in Budgets
2019 and 2020, Nash reiterated. National Party police spokesman Chris Bishop said Nash got nowhere near what he asked for.
‘‘So I think it’s fair to assume that $298.8 over four years, with a bunch of extra cash stuffed away in 2022-23 (beyond the forecast period) is basically a plan for 1800 police over five years.’’
Bishop has consistently said he did not believe Nash would be able to meet the three-year target.
‘‘It makes it even more unlikely than it was before. [Nash] got far less than he originally bid for, which presumably was based on police advice. What’s clear is that it will take far longer than three years to deliver the extra cops – more like five years.’’ In the documents, Nash also talks about the workforce attrition, the ability to recruit police and the capacity to train them.
‘‘Police expects attrition levels to trend up over the medium term, due to the growing and ageing police workforce,’’ he said.
‘‘There is a risk that attrition levels could be materially higher than currently projected. Capacity across police’s current recruitment process is being designed to allow police to quickly respond to any such changes in attrition.’’
Bishop said the higher attrition rates would make achieving the 1800 extra police even more difficult.
Nash also noted the proposed level of growth of the force would require ‘‘sustained recruitment advertising above that seen in recent years’’. He reiterated there were no plans to recruit officers from overseas, as previous governments had done.
And while the existing police college in Porirua would be able to deal with the bulk of the recruits, there was also a wing being trialled in Auckland, and specialist training would be relocated to alternative venues, to make space for the extra recruits.
On Tuesday, the police college received its largest single intake of recruits since 2006 – an intake of 100. Since the Government was formed in October, 455 new police officers had graduated from the college.