National MP Mark Mitchell has decried Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's "rejection of clear facts" after she defended the Police Minister's denial of a rise in gang violence under Labour.
Last month Police Minister Poto Williams was met with uproar in Parliament's Opposition benches after Mitchell asked her if gang violence had increased or decreased under her Government's watch.
"I reject the premise of that question," Williams responded. "I reject the premise that gang tensions have increased under this Government's watch."
Her comments came after a 49 percent increase in injuries recorded as a result of firearms crime in Auckland in 2021 compared with 2020 and 2019, and a rise of nearly 4000 new gang members since 2016.
Ardern, speaking to AM host Ryan Bridge on Monday, defended Williams.
"I was there in the room and the insinuation was very much that what was happening was as a result of policies or actions by the Government."
Mitchell, National's police spokesperson, said Ardern's response was "a rejection of the clear facts", telling Newshub: "Poto Williams categorically rejected a rise in gang tensions under this Government's watch."
Ardern, speaking to AM, recognised there had been a rise in gang tensions and blamed it on Australia's 501 deportation policy, echoing comments Police Commissioner Andrew Coster made in December.
"We have seen cycles in New Zealand's history where we do see tensions escalate and one of the things that causes these tensions, for instance, is additional recruitment, additional entry of new gangs, and I think we can all agree that New Zealand has, as a result of the deportation policy of Australia, seen new gang entrance into New Zealand which is causing an escalation in those tensions," Ardern said.
"Now, regardless of the drivers of that, we have to acknowledge that we have a job to do as every government in the past has to continue to address the impacts of that on our communities.
"I think that's a more meaningful thing for us to have a debate around."
Bridge told Ardern it would be "more meaningful" for Williams to "actually identify we've got a problem to begin with".
Ardern said "what we should be discussing" is how to address crime.
She highlighted Operation Tauwhiro, a long-term and nationally coordinated police operation, that as of March 1 had resulted in 1531 firearms seized, along with 53.74 kg of methamphetamine and 1255 arrests. The operation was extended until June.
The Government also introduced Firearms Prohibition Orders that are expected to help crack down on gun crime by banning high-risk convicted people from owning firearms and enabling the seizure of assets obtained through illicit means.
Police numbers have increased under Labour. The Government last month graduated its 3000th police officer since 2017. The Government is on track to reach a net gain of 1800 police officers on the beat by June 2023.
As for funding, the Government came under fire last year for shrinking the police budget by more than $90 million but Williams at the time said police were better off under Labour than National.
"When we inherited the (police) budget of $1.54 billion in 2017, we have increased that over time by 30 percent to $2 billion, so we are recording record amounts of funding to the police but also increasing our investment in police numbers as well."
Longer police response times
Ardern also defended Williams after she admitted last week that she wasn't across the details of data showing that police response times had increased in almost all regions under Labour's leadership.
"That morning she'd received a copy of an Official Information Act request that was very dense in detail and she hadn't had a chance to talk to police about what the response times reflect in terms of what was happening in the organisation at any given time," Ardern said.
"I don't think it's unreasonable for a minister to want to talk to an agency before getting into the details of a question."
Williams, who has been Minister of Police since 2020, said in Parliament last week it was disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that had resulted in longer police delays.
Williams also noted that response times for emergencies have remained stable, with the median response time in urban areas around eight minutes over the past four years.
Ardern said the emergency response time data had been "conflated" with noon-emergency response times. The data included both Priority 1 responses, described as an immediate threat to life or property or serious vehicle crashes, and Priority 2, when an offender is present but no violent or vehicle crashes with no serious injuries.
Ardern said: "Keep in mind that over the recent period, we've on some days had over 460 police - sometimes more - away because of COVID. So yes, there will be some periods in the calendar where there will be an impact from that, but emergency response times have changed by 39 seconds on average."
Police, however, warned in the official documents against using averages, because "an average calculation is sensitive to outliers in the data".
Mitchell said the data was not 'conflated' as the Prime Minister claimed.
"Even before COVID, the data shows a clear increase in how long it is taking police to respond in almost every district since October 2017," he told Newshub.
"Comparing October 2017 to January 2020 produces equally shocking results with an increase in most areas and a doubling in some districts. Bay of Plenty went from 19 minutes to 51 minutes. Auckland city went from 25 minutes to 58 minutes."
