The National Party will introduce tougher sentences for crime and provide more support for victims if elected to Government at this year’s general election on October 14.
Party leader and Botany MP Christopher Luxon made the policy announcement at National’s annual conference in Wellington on June 25.
He says Kiwis are fed up with brazen offending and a Government he leads will send criminals a strong message through a raft of changes, including tougher sentences.
“In just five years, violent crime has increased by 33 per cent, retail crime has doubled, and gangs are growing faster than police.
“A National Government will ensure the justice system holds offenders accountable through sentences that better reflect the seriousness of a crime, denounce criminal behaviour and show the public that justice is being done.
“We’ll also give more support to victims, put more focus on prisoners’ rehabilitation and drop the prisoner reduction target.”
National’s ‘Real Consequences for Crime’ policy includes stronger sentences for convicted criminals by imposing a new 40 per cent limit on the amount by which a judge can reduce a sentence, restoring the ‘Three Strikes’ law, making gang membership an aggravating factor in sentencing, and removing taxpayer funding for cultural reports.
It will provide more support for the victims of crime, redirecting about $20 million over four years from cultural reports into supporting victims.
That will provide a 29 per cent boost to funding that helps victims access services like counselling or transport to attend court.
And National will provide proper rehabilitation for remand prisoners by allowing them to access programmes that currently are available only to sentenced prisoners.
“Victims and the public risk losing faith in the justice system when criminals receive such hefty discounts to their sentences that they don’t reflect the harm caused,” Luxon says.
“Putting a maximum limit on sentence reductions strikes the right balance between denouncing criminal behaviour and allowing judges’ discretion.
“Restoring ‘Three Strikes’ means offenders who have been twice previously convicted and warned for a serious offence, but are convicted a third time, will face the maximum penalty, without the possibility of parole.
“We will bring it back with clearer guidance on where judges can make exceptions and where they can’t.
“The Sentencing Act allows offenders to request someone they know to speak to the court about the offender’s background.
“Labour has used this provision to pour substantial sums of taxpayer money into written ‘cultural reports’ in an effort to achieve lighter sentences.
“This has led to a thriving cottage industry. National will retain the right of an offender to ask the court to hear from a person known to them but will end taxpayer-funded written reports.”
