Key and Collins in a mess over Police stations closures
Prime Minister John Key and Police Minister Judith Collins are all over the place on plans to sell off police stations, Labour law and order spokesman Clayton Cosgrove says.
Mr Key and Ms Collins, under pressure yesterday, came up with a confused and contradictory set of responses to information released in secret official papers that the Police have been working since February on plans to sell off police stations and houses, Mr Cosgrove said.
“First of all Mr Key claimed it was an ‘operational matter’ for Police to deal with, despite the cuts being forced on the Police by a government-ordered line by line review.
“Then Ms Collins had to acknowledge she had been aware of the plans for seven months.
“Later, Ms Collins said she was actually opening stations, not closing them – only to admit on the radio this morning that the five stations she had opened since the election had been funded and built under Labour, and she had simply cut the ribbon.
“Later still, Mr Key said the sell-off would be restricted to police houses, only for police to say that all police property was potentially on the block.
“Police also corrected Mr Key’s false assertion that police ‘holiday homes’ could be put up for sale. The NZ Police does not own holiday homes so has none to sell.
“This whole saga has revealed the high-levels of spin, confusion and poor communication that exist at the heart of this government. The left hand and right hand do not know what each other are doing,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
“This is creating large amounts of uncertainty in our communities. People do not know how many police stations are being earmarked for closure and sell-off, just as they are now beginning to see the impacts on their communities from the Government-ordered chopping of 340 cars from the police car fleet,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
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