Speech at opening of new Manurewa police station

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

I’d like to acknowledge everyone here today, local IWI representatives, those councillors and staff of Manukau City Council, community representatives, and other locals.

I’d like also to acknowledge the strong turnout from the police family,
·Police Commissioner Rob Robinson,
·Deputy Commissioner Lyn Provost,
·all the Superintendents Ted Cox, Howard Broad, John Lyall, Roger Carson.

It’s wonderful to see such a strong turnout from police.

It’s wonderful also to meet the 52 Manurewa police staff members and their families present.

I’d like to make special mention of the TWO former United Kingdom police now working from this station.

I hope you’re enjoying your new surroundings, I hope you feel coming here has been a good move.

Welcome, and I wish you well for your work in New Zealand.

I’ve been the member for Manurewa since 1990 and I’ve been well aware for many years of the area’s need for a new police station.

The previous situation where staff operated out of five old houses, has long been very unsatisfactory.

Over the years I’ve tried to get things moving, but wasn’t able to until we got into Government.

So in many senses today’s opening marks a milestone for me as well.

People spend a great many hours of their day at work, and it all adds up to a significant part of peoples’ lives.

I like to acknowledge the role and impact a well designed working environment has on peoples’ lives.

Providing excellent working conditions pays off in innumerable ways.

People work better, enjoy their jobs more, and at the end of their day return to their families less stressed if attention has been paid to good workplace design.

Having said that I would like to congratulate CHOW HILL Architects, for the great job they’ve done on this project.

I’d like to also thank project managers RTD PACIFIC, as well as HAWKINS CONSTRUCTION – no relation, I assure you – and all the contractors and subbies for their excellent work and attention to detail.

Rebuilding is always a disruptive process, as anyone who has ever had renovations or rebuilding done will tell you.

This was a $2million plus project that replaced old houses, including a muster room bought on site when the Ministry of Transport merged with police.

Staff are to be commended on their patience as most, with the exception of the Area Controller and Watchhouse team were relocated to Papakura.

Youth and Community team also stayed, working from the back house behind the station.

I’m told this group had to put up with portaloos for about nine months, which must take inconvenience to a new level.

On a more positive note, it is a bonus for Manurewa that the Youth and Community house will continue here on site.

But after living through the bad old days, we now have a brand new station to work from.

Manurewa police now operate from a top class station, and for the first time ever, they’re all under the one roof.

This will certainly make supervision and communication easier than it has been.

At the same time the building’s design is flexible enough to cover future growth or movement in staff numbers.

It would all make Manurewa’s first resident police officer, Constable Edward Christmas proud.

Constable Christmas was a former farmer who served in Wanganui and Tokaanu before transferring to Manurewa in 1937.

He served the area until he retired in 1955, receiving the Police Long Service, the Good Conduct Medal and the 22-year clasp.

He was apparently very well regarded by the locals and Christmas Road not far from here is named after him.

Since his day, Manurewa has become one of New Zealand’s fastest growing areas.

That growth has brought with it special challenges, and these are recognised by the Government.

This is an area for example, that along with the rest of South Auckland, has benefited from the recent Boy Racer legislation.

There has been some mention in the media over the past few days about police response times to burglaries.

The good news is that police continue to deliver an excellent service in this regard.

When the Labour-led Government was elected, a performance standard was agreed with the Commisioner around burglary response times.

Previously at times, New Zealanders waited for days, even between five to eight days, for police to respond after a burglary was reported.

I am glad to say that those days have gone.

Today, in the majority of cases police do deliver on the agreement.

That is that they continue to work towards their goal of attending to 97 per cent of burglaries within 24 hours of the burglary being reported.

It may be, that by agreement, police at the request of the person burgled, attend outside that timeframe.

This may occur include commercial properties where the keyholder is unavailable, where homeowners ask police to defer attendance as they are on holiday or until they return from work, for example.

The system is working well.

The proof of that is the big drop in the number of burglaries.

It’s at its lowest in 14 years.

We used to have around 96,000 burglaries a year in this country during the 1990s, now we have around 60,000.

Both police and the community have to be congratulated for this achievement.

In some ways, today’s opening of Manurewa station is an historic occasion.

Manurewa is the sixth new station to be built in New Zealand this millennium.

I’m glad to say there’s others in the pipeline.

Unfortunately, investment in police buildings has not always been as solid.

Between 1996 and 1999, for instance, an average of only around $725,000 a year was spent on police property in New Zealand.

The Labour-led government inherited a situation where there was a lot to do, particularly as regards police capital works.

I’m pleased to say around $12 million per year is being invested on the refurbishment and rebuilding of stations nationwide.

That’s around $60 million over five years to rebuild and refurbish police stations to reverse the state of disrepair that we inherited.

Today it’s Manurewa’s turn.

Recently, Howick opened new premises, as did Great Barrier Island, Kapiti, Waikoutiti, and St Andrews.

Invercargill, and Oamaru communities will shortly celebrate opening new stations in their areas.

Many others, including most recently Hokitika, have been done up.

Once again, my congratulations and thanks to those who worked on the building, and here’s to the continuation of the excellent policing tradition in Manurewa.

Thank you.