Hawkins is floundering

Mention the name George Hawkins, and what comes to mind. Popular, competent, articulate - or incompetent, hopeless and floundering.

Hawkins has got to be the most hopeless MP in Parliament at the moment. Even Paul Adams would be better.

Women are more worried abut being in an accident involving a speeding car than being attacked in their home. Well, if you believe Police Minister George Hawkins, you would.

But why believe Hawkins when he totally out of his depth - and a true potshot target for the Opposition. Hawkins got his info from a 2001 survey stating that women were more worried about being hit by a drunk driver than by being attacked in their own home. I`d be more worried - in 2005 - being taxed by a hidden speed camera gun, while someone was getting beaten up down the road as a friend dials 111 for no response.

Someone needs to tell Hawkins that there is slight difference being in an accident involving a speeding car as compared to being hit by a drunk driver. The 2001 survey didn't even mention speeding.

Hawkins says, "We have been fighting over very many years to get drunks off the road, to make sure people fasten their seat belts, and to make sure they do not speed."

And how many speeding tickets has John Tamihere received? About 15. How many MPs have been caught drunk driving?

Given that most drivers who get caught by speed camera guns are not drinking and they are wearing seatbelts, how do speed cameras address the issues of not wearing seatbelts and drink drivers who drive within the speed limit

Probably as much as they address assaults, and shooting flags with guns. Perhaps we should sack Hawkins and put the Revenue minister in charge of police, because revenue collecting is the prime focus and core business of the police.

In 2000 the police issued 559,935 traffic offence notices, incurring fines of $31.9 million. In 2004 the number issued was 1,072,539, incurring $59.9 million worth of fines.

And where did that money go? Someone tell me. In 2004 alone, the money to be spent on Labour's self promotion of Working For Families is less than half the money raised through speed-camera fundrasing.

But perhaps $59.9 million is just a drop in the bucket to the government when it can spend $700 million on 105 LAV (light armoured vehicles) which they can't use.