Statement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster:

Today, the Government released Budget 24, which included a significant investment in Police and acknowledges the important role Police plays in keeping our communities safe.

The Budget provides $226 million over four years for 500 additional constabulary officers. This has been well signalled by Government and I'm delighted to see it confirmed today.

We will be funded for 10,711 full-time constables, replacing any officers who leave during this time and growing by 500 more constables than were in place on 27 November 2023, when the Government was formed.

The funding will also provide for the training, tools, technology, cars and equipment we need for these extra constabulary staff.

These 500 additional roles will be deployed to bolster frontline policing services, including visible community reassurance and tackling public concerns around gangs, violent crime and persistent youth offending.

A further $63 million over five years will fund our annual fleet replacement programme of around 600 to 650 vehicles a year, as well as replacement of our aging utility vehicles for rural areas and addressing critical operational needs such as specialist AOS and STG vehicles, heavy vehicles and covert surveillance.

It will also allow us to maintain our maritime capability. This is welcome news to make sure we continue to have the tools we need to do our job on a day-to-day basis, and comes after rapidly escalating capital costs in this area in the last few years.

A one-off payment of $120 million next year will enable Police to prioritise our most immediate cost pressures as we work to achieve fiscal sustainability in future years.

Increased costs have included a $10 million annual increase in the cost of fuel and vehicle maintenance, as well as a $17 million increase in rates, utilities and maintenance costs each year.

These and other factors have resulted in projected budget shortfalls in future years.

Police will be responsible for directing this funding to our most urgent operational costs, and the investment provides some breathing space as we work to return our finances to a sustainable place for future years.

As part of the Budget package, Police has been asked to deliver $55 million of savings by reducing corporate support functions as other agencies are currently doing.

Our corporate services are key to the success of the organisation, enabling the frontline to do the work they do quickly, effectively and safely.

At this point, we've only been able to undertake a very high-level analysis. This indicates the savings will require us to operate with a reduction of around 175 employees going forward.

The Executive has requested detailed design work around this, and I anticipate we'll have more information for you in August. We will, of course, engage with employees and representative bodies throughout.

I know this will be an unsettling time for staff and I thank you for your continued patience and dedication as we work through this.

The environment Police is facing remains challenging, with gang behaviour, violent crime and serious youth offending causing concern to many New Zealanders.

I'm incredibly proud of the work you all do every day to make sure our communities are safe, as well as feeling safe.

On the provision of cancer medicines, Act leader and Associate Health minister David Seymour said money had been put aside to deal with a $270 million fiscal cliff in Pharmac but “I don’t think anybody knew how big the fiscal cliff was.” 

Asked if the people who would have written to Seymour asking for their medicines to be funded had been let down, Seymour said “I feel like they have been let down by the circumstances that we faced. I don’t think the Government has made an active choice, and I’m not sure how the Government could have made a better choice. 

“Obviously if we didn’t face this fiscal cliff situation that would have been pretty tough, but Nicola Willis and I just sat down and looked at each other and said we don’t have any choice, we’ve got to put money in to deal with this fiscal cliff.”

The Government has announced $600,000 to investigate emergency towing options for Cook Strait which the maritime union says is an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.

There was no word in the Budget on what will replace Interislander’s cancelled mega ferries and Treasury says exiting the contract to build them is a fiscal risk.

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Nicola Willis’ first Budget as Finance Minister has revealed the extent of cuts to the public sector, with further cuts on the cards.

Some $3.71 billion has been found, through cuts that include ministerial savings and axing programmes coined by the previous Government.

The Government has previously signalled today’s Budget will be one for the frontline.

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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he would spend his tax cut “on his family in some form or another.”

“The more important thing is not about me, it’s more about lower- and middle-income New Zealanders. We are doing exactly what we promised to do before the campaign.”

On the thousands of people who protested today against the Government’s policies, Luxon dug in and said this was a Budget for all New Zealanders and it did not matter if “you had been here a long time or short time.”

Asked if he had proven the protesters right given the funding cuts to Māori development, Luxon said there would be increased spending on health, law and order and education and Māori would benefit for it.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says the new budget was “shifting the gear, it’s no longer reverse” and that there were "a whole lot” of areas he had wished the Government had gone further on.

“You’ve got to be patient. There is a next year, and a year after that,” he said.

“You’ve got to recognise you’re never going to get your own way ... but it’s progress.”

On the funding for new police officers, Peters said: “I’d like to have more police officers, I’d like to have 1000. Frankly, law and order in this country is at a crisis point.” 

Asked how confident he would meet the target by the end of next year, Peters said “we wouldn’t have set it if we didn’t think we would get there.”

“Our record, I might tell you, is [to have] delivered twice the police numbers, we over produced last time, we promised 1800 frontline and we trained 2338, that’s our record. So if you’re talking about 500 this time, we’ll probably do better than that.”

The opposition have described the Budget as a shocker for Māori to which Peters said “they haven’t read it then ... if you look at all the areas where there is a serious expenditure for Māori, it’s going up.”

On Te Pāti Māori beginning the processes of establishing a Parliament, Peters it was the party had “dislocated arrogance and separatist ambition”.

“I can’t believe that Pita Sharples, or the founders of the party have ever thought that way. The language they’re talking is the language of communism.”

He said Te Pāti Māori not being present for Finance Minister Nicola Willis' speech was "unprecedented."

"It's a disgrace."

Tertiary education students face an increase in their course fees by up to 6 per cent next year, while overseas student borrowers will have to pay an additional 1 per cent in interest on their loans.

One of Budget 2024's initiatives is to provide funding to tertiary education providers so they can, Budget documents say, "increase tuition and training fees charged to learners by up to 6 per cent in 2025".

"This reflects that tertiary education providers have been unable to increase fees in line with inflation in recent years." 

Universities have been under severe financial strain, in part due to far fewer international students since the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to controversial staff and course cuts.

Tertiary Education Minister Penny Simmonds said a 6 per cent increase was a proposal that would be consulted on later in the year. Inflation was also the reason to increase the interest rate on student loans for overseas borrowers.

“Over the last three years, inflation has overtaken the interest rate paid by overseas-based student loan debtors by 9.6 per cent," she said."

The interest rate charged to student loan borrowers based overseas will increase by 1 per cent for five years, from 3.8 per cent to 4.8 per cent. This will take effect from April 1, 2025.

”The late payment interest for overseas and New Zealand-based borrowers will also increase by 1 per cent," Simmonds said.

The Government is also shifting its fees-free scheme from first-year students to third-year students, a commitment in the National-NZ First agreement. Eligibility will start from January next year.

Labour's fees-free scheme was originally hoped to open the doors of tertiary education to those who would otherwise not have considered it, but data over the years show it has mainly subsidised students from wealthier backgrounds who would have gone to university anyway.

“Our Fees Free change to a more effective policy will also produce savings of $877 million while helping to deliver better education outcomes,” Simmonds said.

“Ooooh $25 a week but from April 1st power goes up by $15 a month, food goes up daily, petrol, insurance, land rates. What an UTTER joke, all while they drive us into more and more debt,” a Herald reader said.