National's Mark Mitchell accuses Chris Hipkins of personal responsibility for crime, will resign if it doesn't improve under him

Three years after the Government made a south Auckland dairy owner the poster boy for its fog canon rollout, he was last week robbed and beaten with a baseball bat.

It comes as National's police spokesman is blaming the Prime Minister for crime.

Pranay Patel has been surveying the damage to his dad's dairy, a week after he was attacked by five kids with a baseball bat.

A fog cannon installed in 2020 did go off, but that didn't stop them from beating his dad up. The dad spent days in hospital with a brain injury.

The dairy was among the first to get a fog cannon when Labour rolled them out in 2020.

"It's just one of these initiatives that we believe we need to put in place to keep our workers safe," said then-Police Minister Stuart Nash. 

Three years later the fog cannon went off - but it didn't keep Pranay's dad safe.

"They clearly weren't able to get much so they decided to break all the fridges over here so currently we've got some glad wrap going on at the moment," he  said. 

Three of the five kids have been identified and two have been arrested; one is 17, the other 13.

"It's great what police have done, it's quite quickly they've grabbed the person but it shouldn't happen in the first place," Pranay said. 

Since 2012, the offending rate for children and young people both decreased by about 64 percent, but the number of police proceedings against children increased by 3 percent, which the Ministry of Justice says is "principally due to a small number of repeat offenders".

"I just want justice, not just for my dad but all the crime that's happening," Pranay said.

National's Mark Mitchell said: "What we need to do is stop the offending." 

Hipkins said: "We have certainly seen a spike in youth offending over the last 18 months or so that has been unacceptable. We have done a number of things already, but I think there is more to be done". 

But Mitchell said the Prime Minister - the former Police Minister - is personally responsible for crime.

"Point me to one thing he did to make our country safer? Zero. Nothing. So he's a hopeless Police Minister," Mitchell said. 

Hipkins said: "I think the people who commit crime are responsible for crime and I think anyone who wants to be Minister of Police would be well-advised to start from that premise."

Despite not even having the job, Mitchell told Newshub he's already made a huge call - to ink an exit into his job application. He's given himself a trigger for a sacking.

"People will have to start to see changes in the first 12 months," he said.

Asked if people didn't see changes in that first 12 months whether he would stand down, Mitchell said: "I will resign." 

"I'm not the right guy for the job, if I cannot do that and I cannot deliver that, then I will resign."

End crime or end his career those are his options if he gets his dream job.