President's Column - Drugs and organised crime major issues for future
The inability of Police to pass the 2% pay-rise, already achieved by sworn staff, on to the non-sworn staff was causing irritation not only to the nonsworn but also to sworn officers who are driven by a strong sense of fairness.
That irritation was apparent when delegates arrived at the Association’s Annual Conference in Wellington last month.
It threatened to overshadow the theme of the conference, which was organised crime - New Zealand’s own‘underbelly’.
Fortuitously, the Association’s strenuous efforts to ensure that non-sworn staff were treated equitably were rewarded, with the Commissioner announcing on day one of the conference that nonsworn employees would receive the same increase as their sworn colleagues.
It is doubtful the Commissioner will again receive quite such a resounding outbreak of applause as he did at the time he made the announcement, again during his tenure.
Not only was the news good but it also meant we could then focus on understanding the need to recognise the insidiousness of our organised crime problem in New Zealand and the threat it presents to police and the public alike.
Our warnings on P were ignored for years, as were our expos é s on problems in the Comms Centres and child abuse areas.
We are confident now in our members’ ability to predict emerging problems within Police.
The results of last year’s members’ survey clearly showed that drugs and organised crime are major issues for the future.
Our guest speaker at the conference the head of the Purana Taskforce in Victoria, told how it took 25 very public gangland executions on the streets of
Melbourne before the problem was taken seriously.
It will be a shame if we do the same; given that at least five drug-related executions in the Bay of
Plenty in the last few years means we are showing signs of following suit.
So it was an excellent conference that achieved the balance of achieving a fair deal for our lowest paid members.
It also drew the New Zealand public and the politicians attention to an insidious problem confronting them.
The timing was also excellent in that it came on the back of the Prime Minister’s announcement of new strategies to counter ‘P’.
The Prime Minister spoke at and opened the conference, so is well aware now of the issue.
It was a win-win situation for everyone involved.
We can only hope it has been really bad timing for the crooks!
