Acknowledging the tragic incident in which a dairy worker succumbed to stab injuries in the course of a burglary in Auckland on November 23, Minister of Police Chris Hipkins told Parliament today that he commended “the efforts of the first responders at the scene, and extend[ed] sincere sympathy to the victim, their family, and to the local community.”
In response to a query, the minister said he had already been reviewing the criteria to access the retail crime prevention fund, and wondered why the “particular business concerned didn’t have a fog cannon installed as part of the first stage of the programme, which began back in 2017.”
The minister further said that “it isn’t possible for the taxpayer to subsidise security measures at every retail business in New Zealand, and, therefore, there does need to be some criteria that guide who does, and who doesn’t, get access to those subsidies.”
When questioned by Chris Baillie of the Act Party as to why only seven businesses have had [security] installations completed under the Retail Crime Prevention Programme over the last six months, the minister said the retail crime prevention fund work had been accelerated in areas like fog – cannon installations and upgrades, security sirens, alarms, CCTV, lighting, counter screens, store mirrors, window strengthening, bollards, planter boxes, roller doors, and so on.
Baillie then quoted a serving police officer as saying, “Well, it was only a matter of time before a shopkeeper was killed in the current spate of robberies. If you allow people to offend without the risk of consequences, there will be no fear for the bad people. Shame on those who have allowed things to get so out of control in New Zealand.”
However, Minister Hipkins denied any knowledge of that “particular quote.”
“I don’t intend to comment on an individual reported comment without knowing the authenticity or the source of it,” the minister added.
Baillie then proceeded to quote dairy and business association chair Sunny Kaushal as saying: “As for the prime minister, we’ve never had a single reply despite asking to meet.”
Hipkins answered: “I can clearly say that I have personally met with Mr Kaushal and his group, and, as follow-up action, so have the police - they have had at least one in-person meeting and several follow-up interactions to respond to the various proposals and issues that have been raised.”
Baillie followed up with a query: “And does he [the minister] think the MP for Mt Albert should visit the family of the victim?”
The minister ignored the query.
This exchange was followed by a question from National’s Mark Mitchell, who wanted to know if the minister agreed with the Dairy and Business Owners Group who felt the country was becoming lawless and that running a business had become very difficult.
Describing the comment as inflammatory, the minister noted that some of the proposals put forward by the group, including allowing business owners to take matters into their own hands, “could risk further escalation and put more people at risk.”
The minister said police should be allowed to do their jobs.
Mitchell then reminded Hipkins that retailers had suffered over 430 ram raids this year and had “seen a friend and a member of that group killed last night in a fatal stabbing.”
Mitchell said retailers felt unsafe.
In response, Minister Hipkins sought to reassure the retail business community that the police were “working very hard to make sure that every one of those offences is fully investigated and that those who do them are held to account for their offending.”
When asked what the criteria was for allowing business owners to have access to the retail crime fund, the minister appeared to be unclear on the specifics, saying only that the business [involved in the tragic incident] “ should have been eligible to receive a fog cannon from as early as 2017, when funding was made available by Government for the installation of fog cannons at that time, and therefore I do not yet have an explanation as to why they have not received one.”
Minister Hipkins declined an invitation from National’s Melissa Lee to personally join her on Saturday to visit businesses affected by ram raids and violent crime in Mt Albert and Sandringham, saying he was “not in a position to do so this coming weekend.”
He said he had visited businesses that have been the victims of ram raids and advised all members of Parliament to allow the police “ the space to do their jobs.”
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