Judith Collins Clevedon MP 10 April 2006

In The Navy Last weekend I was delighted to attend a Royal New Zealand Naval Association event at Dent Place, Papakura. The occasion was to "Celebrate The Year of the Veteran," which honored those who had served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in wars or emergencies.

The Royal New Zealand Naval Association originated in the early 1920's, and a main objective is to maintain the comradeship practised in the Navy.

At this event I was privileged to be made an honorary member. The organisation consists of retired or serving personnel of the Royal New Zealand Navy, or any other Commonwealth Royal Navies.

Graffiti Feedback I would like to express huge gratitude to you for the number of intelligent emails I received regarding the graffiti control bill, and more police for Counties Manukau.

Firstly, I agree with many of your comments such as graffiti offences paving the path for more serious crimes. It also seems a lot of you believe fines rarely deal with the problem, and that we need to get taggers out there cleaning up their own mess.

Secondly, from your responses it is unanimous that we ought to know how many sworn police we have in our district. However, even without specific figures we know we need more. As one of you so appropriately stated, "The crims are laughing." For an update, Minister of Police, Annette King, still hasn't answered how many sworn officers we have.

Plunketline Funding Dropped When Helen Clark first became Prime Minister in 1999, in the speech from the Throne she undertook to fully fund a 24 hour Plunketline. Prior to the 1999 election, Miss Clark campaigned relentlessly for Plunketline. Now, in a piece of remarkable arrogance, Miss Clark's government has dropped the funding of Plunketline. The Labour Government proposes replacing Plunketline with a well-child line run by the same people running the Healthline.

If you support Plunketline, please sign the on-line petition at www.plunket.org.nz National is calling on the Government to reinstate the funding.

Veterans Report due this week The joint Working Group looking into what the government should be doing for victims of Agent Orange and their families is due out this week. I've been keeping pressure on the Minister Rick Barker. It's very much time for action - not more reports and reviews.

ENDS

© Scoop Media