Luxon says Mitchell 'muddled his words' on police pledge

Christopher Luxon says his police minister was simply outlining the challenges and he has not ruled out the two-year plan.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed the Government still hopes to recruit 500 new police officers in the next two years — despite Police Minister Mark Mitchell's suggestion it could take longer than that.

The coalition agreement between National and New Zealand First includes a commitment to "training no fewer than 500 new frontline police within the first two years".

But Mitchell said in Parliament yesterday: "The Government's policy is to deliver 500 additional police officers over the term of this Government, which is three years."

The coalition agreed to introduce 500 new officers over two years, but Mitchell had a different timeline.

He also told Breakfast on Monday: "I think, realistically, 500 new staff over the next three years is what we're aiming for."

Labour slammed the apparent goalpost shift – but this morning, on Breakfast, Luxon said Mitchell may have simply "muddled his words".

The Prime Minister said: "He may have muddled his words a little bit but our coalition agreement stands, which is that we want to deliver 500 new police within the two-year period, and that's what we're very focused on.

"What Mark's talking to is the difficulty around that in terms of actually recruitment challenges that we have, retiring police force, and certainly an Australian campaign that's been pretty successful with our police officers as well.

"But we're not backing down on that, we want to go for that goal – and we know it's tough, we know it's challenging, but between us and police we're gonna be committed to delivering that."

NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said he'd spoken to National about Mitchell's comments.

Luxon was grilled on the apparent discrepancy, but he maintained the target timeline was unchanged.

"Our coalition agreement commitment to deliver 500 police in two years stands," he said. "We're acknowledging the challenges, and that's what he was talking to.

Mark Mitchell and Christopher Luxon in 2022

"But that's not a reason for us to change the target, we're gonna be very committed to going after 500 new police in a two-year period because that's important in order to be able to restore law and order."

Later on Breakfast, NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said he'd spoken to National about Mitchell's comments.

Peters said he told National: "Some people are making a mistake here, let's sort this out.

The Police Minister said earlier this week that it would take three years to train 500 new officers, when National’s coalition agreement with NZ First said it would be done in two.

"We made a promise, we think law and order's critical."

In a statement this morning, Mitchell echoed Luxon's comments.

"Our goal remains to deliver 500 more police officers in the first two years of this term of Parliament – as set out in the coalition agreement," he said.

"Yesterday in the House, I was reflecting the significant challenges that police face to drive that recruitment."