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Speaker 1: Got a love scrutiny week at today the police and

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Speaker 1: the firing line. Police bosses warned today that the government's

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Speaker 1: election promise to train five hundred new officers could take

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Speaker 1: longer than their self imposed two year deadline. Police Commissioner

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Speaker 1: Richard Chambers told Parliament's Justice Select Committee today that he

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Speaker 1: is refusing to lower the quality of the training to

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Speaker 1: meet the target, so it's not going to happen. Labour

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Speaker 1: jumped on this immediately, claiming it's a broken election promise.

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Speaker 1: So Casey Costello from New Zealand first as the Associate

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Speaker 1: Police Minister and joins me. Now, Hella, Casey, Hi, how

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Speaker 1: are you hi? Very good? So in your statement that

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Speaker 1: you're released today, you said that in all your consultations

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Speaker 1: with the police you have not been told to this

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Speaker 1: point that the target would not be met and the

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Speaker 1: deadline will be missed. So how does today's news make

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Speaker 1: you feel about your coalition promise?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it's really important to get a context.

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Speaker 2: So what the commissioner was saying, and it was he

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Speaker 2: had said there was no deviation from the commitment to

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Speaker 2: achieve no them betweeny twenty five, and there was an

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Speaker 2: extrapolation around modeling around when it would have been achieved

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Speaker 2: and based upon what budget was set. But I've been

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Speaker 2: reassured that we are on track, that we're working hard.

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Speaker 2: We have a massive recruitment pipeline, the biggest that they've

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Speaker 2: ever seen, and so we're driving forward on that and

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Speaker 2: then between twenty five targets.

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Speaker 1: But doesn't this go right to the heart of the

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Speaker 1: coalition agreement because right from the get go Mark Mitchell

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Speaker 1: said that two years would be tough, but New Zealand

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Speaker 1: first reminded him of the Coalition agreement and two years

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Speaker 1: was actually a hell of a deadline. So isn't this

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Speaker 1: right the right to the number of your relationship with

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Speaker 1: the coalition?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's like we have total commitment and Monster Mitchell

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Speaker 2: and I know we meet every week with police and

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Speaker 2: we talk about those targets and reaching those targets. We

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Speaker 2: have done a huge investment in terms of recruitment and

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Speaker 2: pipeline and engaging and that's why we have the massive pipeline. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: we were behind the eight ball because there was no

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Speaker 2: wings that went through in December and January, so there

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Speaker 2: was no pipelines. That we're in recovery and we've done

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Speaker 2: modeling and extrapolations.

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Speaker 1: It's obviously achieved that will be look as obviously not

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Speaker 1: going to happen in the time that you would have

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Speaker 1: liked and you wanted and you promised. But are you

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Speaker 1: okay with it now taking longer?

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Speaker 2: There's no As I've said that, I have not been

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Speaker 2: advised in any way, shape or form, we're not going

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Speaker 2: to make the November twenty five targets.

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Speaker 1: So you have hoped that they're going to make it.

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Speaker 1: You actually still have some hope that they're going to

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Speaker 1: make it.

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Speaker 2: I still have hope that we make it. We have

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Speaker 2: increased the wing capacities, we have increased the number of

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Speaker 2: wings going through college. As long as our attrition rate

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Speaker 2: stays below the five percent, which it has done, then

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Speaker 2: I am confident that we can still achieve it.

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Speaker 1: Good. Well, that's good news. But do you really think,

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Speaker 1: as Associate Police Minister you should have been kept in

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Speaker 1: the loop about this conversation more.

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Speaker 2: I think I've gone through and listened to what was

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Speaker 2: said in the Select Committee, and I think there has

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Speaker 2: been a little bit of the story around how the

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Speaker 2: conversation went in the questions and how they were responded to.

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Speaker 2: I've spoken to the Commissioner today, I an't satisfied they

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Speaker 2: were on track.

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Speaker 1: Have you been selected to actually talk about this issue?

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Speaker 1: Because New Zealand first was so adamant about it, and

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Speaker 1: so Mark Mitchell said, oh, well this is your problem.

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Speaker 2: No, I have the delegated under my Associate Police Minister,

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Speaker 2: I have the organized crime and I have the recruitment

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Speaker 2: of five hundred under my delegation. So I am the

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Speaker 2: right person to be speaking to.

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Speaker 1: And should the government really just let go of the number.

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Speaker 1: And as as of course Richard Chambers that the Police

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Speaker 1: Commissioner said he wants the quality and really go for

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Speaker 1: the quality.

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Speaker 2: We are absolutely that's what We're not compromising quality and

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Speaker 2: that was why the pipeline has been so encouraging, because

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Speaker 2: we are getting some outstanding applicants through. I've been to

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Speaker 2: at least two of the recruitment weaning so far, fantastic

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Speaker 2: people coming through. We haven't lowered the quality, and I've

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Speaker 2: been saying that right from the start we will not

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Speaker 2: lower the quality. But we haven't needed to because we

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Speaker 2: are getting fantastic applicants.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you. We all wanting more cops. It

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Speaker 1: is now eleven minutes after five For more from Hither

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Speaker 1: Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks it'd be

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Speaker 1: from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio