Clayton Mitchell New Zealand First MP

Let's face it, the Government loves to take credit – for anything and everything it can. The All Blacks won the World Cup? The Government accepts your gratitude. Births up? Deaths down? More or less birds migrating here there and everywhere? The Government would like to accept this award on behalf of…itself.

So, when I heard about the new strategy being implemented by Manukau Police in order to reduce the number of infringements on young Maori, I was instantly concerned this might be the Government pilot-testing a new scheme whereby it can take credit for reducing the number of driving infringements by simply failing to report them.

We must be particularly watchful of Government's antics to skew statistics in order to portray strong, positive outcomes where there are none.

The Government mustn't be allowed to lie to us about improvements to our society by simply failing to report them.

Ceasing to report offences doesn't mean they stop happening, it just means we've lost track. And, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

Furthermore, if kept, this policy must be expanded to cover all youth. The idea of not ticketing or fining for certain driving offences, if helpful for any youth, may then be said to be helpful for all disenfranchised youth – irrespective of their race or colour.

It's important we endeavour to provide opportunities across our society equally, being sure to provide support to disenfranchised youth, because they are disenfranchised and not due to their ethnic background.

At NZ First we strongly oppose any policies promoting separatism. These policies wrongly divide our nation. We have long advocated one rule for all and will continue to do so.