Labour wants immigrant police officers!

The Herald reports:

Police Minister Stuart Nash is now rejecting his earlier idea of actively recruiting police from overseas, following concerns from Cabinet colleague Nanaia Mahuta about whether foreign police would interact well with Maori.

Nash denies he is backing down, having yesterday floated the idea as part of a drive to hire 1800 new police officers in the next three years – a commitment made in the coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First.

“I’ll talk to the Minister of Immigration and say, ‘Look, if we do a recruitment programme overseas, and we get sworn officers coming in from a number of countries, can we look to fast-track visas for these men and women?'” he told Radio NZ’s Morning Report yesterday.

The comments were not welcomed by the Police Association, which said that overseas recruitment was a “short-term” solution.

 Maori community leaders also raised concerns about how overseas officers would interact with Maori, prompting Maori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta to seek assurances from Nash.

 

Today Nash told the Herald there would be no such recruitment programme, saying New Zealanders were the “absolute preference”, especially under-represented groups such as Maori, Pasifika, Asians and women.

So Labour says we must have fewer immigrants. Then the Police Minister says he wants to import hundreds of people to be police officers, and then he gets slapped down by the Maori Development Minister.

I’ve got no problem with ask importing police officers if we can’t recruit and train enough people locally. But Labour are the ones who campaigned on how we have too many immigrants.