NZ First will not budge on repeal
NZ First is expected to make it clear it will not support a three strikes repeal being considered as part of any wider justice reform after caucus meets today.
Justice Minister Andrew Little was forced to backtrack on the proposed repeal that he was planning to take to Cabinet on Monday after NZ First indicated it wouldn’t support it.
The NZ First caucus has no plans to budge on its long-held view of being tough on law and order after seeking feedback from its voter base.
That position is expected to be made clear after caucus meets at Parliament today.
The planned repeal was supposed to be the first in a raft of widespread law and order reforms, in an effort to overhaul the criminal justice system and reduce the prison population.
But Labour had failed to get past the first hurdle, in what National Party leader Simon Bridges called ‘‘an embarrassing backdown’’.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said the party would reveal its long-term position on three strikes following its caucus meeting today.
Peters was yet to say whether the party would back a repeal further down the line.
Little acknowledged NZ First had concerns about the repeal.
‘‘The strength of this coalition is that change only occurs with the support of all three parties,’’ he said.
‘‘We are committed to a meaningful and balanced programme of change and we will be consulting our coalition partners and the public on this.
‘‘The reality is that the justice system is not working and we need to make changes to make our communities safer.’’
Little said NZ First was ‘‘totally committed’’ to criminal justice reform.
Rather than taking a ‘‘piecemeal approach’’ to reforms, NZ First wanted to see a ‘‘full, wellrounded package’’ of changes to go to Cabinet in one go, he said.
Last week, it became clear there would not be enough support to get the repeal across the line, so Little pulled his proposal.
A full package of proposed reforms would happen after the independent advisory panel had been appointed, and the criminal justice summit in August. The new plans would likely be announced early next year.
Little said he would not be deterred by National’s accusations the Government was being ‘‘soft on crime’’.
While he expected this to ‘‘taint’’ the public debate, that would not stop him from putting in place measures he believed would lower offending and victimisation rates.
Bridges said the decision to pull the proposed repeal ‘‘underlined the cracks in the coalition and showed just how little thought is going into decisions which directly affect the lives of New Zealanders’’.
Little had not done the work needed to be able to keep the promise he’d made on three strikes, Bridges said.
He referred to this as ‘‘policy on the hoof’’, saying Labour had made a mess of the situation.
‘‘These are incredibly serious matters but this is amateur hour stuff from a Government quickly proving its incompetence.’’
The three strikes policy, introduced in 2010, dictates repeat violent offenders are not eligible for parole after their third offence.