Labels like ‘soft’ and ‘tough’ on crime meaningless

It’s election year and politicians chasing votes are going to talk up how tough they are on crime – so why was Police Minister Stuart Nash forced to resign because he told the commissioner that police should appeal what he saw as a light court sentence? An MP from each side of the House gives their views.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has made his decisions around the police portfolio very clear, and minister Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background for this very important role.

What’s important in assessing crime is that every community in Aotearoa should be a safe place to live, work and raise a family.

As a government, we‘re focused on the criminal behaviour putting this standard at risk. Evidence tells us that the best way to reduce offending and keep our communities safe is to prevent crime in the first place.

We have been actively growing our police force, and giving them the tools they need. There are now nearly 1700 additional police on the beat across the country under this Government, with more new officers coming through.

Growth in police numbers means an increased focus on organised crime. Operation Cobalt (targeting unlawful behaviour and intimidation by gangs) has filed over 28,000 charges across several crime types. We are also hitting gangs where it hurts – their pockets, by removing their criminally acquired assets and putting the proceeds back into crime prevention.

2022 was a record-breaking year of drug seizures – including 1.82 tonnes of methamphetamine and 949 kilograms of cocaine. More than $2.3 billion in social harm was prevented through drug seizures at the border alone.

Dealing seriously with crime is multilayered; it means dealing with evidence of underlying causes and being very clear that those who cause harm to others must be held accountable.

It’s why labels like ‘‘soft’’ and ‘‘tough’’ on crime are meaningless.

It’s about what is effective, not what sounds good. Part of our response to the spike in youth retail crime is ramping up locally-driven youth engagement, mentoring and employment programmes, which get our kids away from crime – including the expansion of Kotahi te Whakaaro, a programme for youth resulting in a 76% drop in reoffending.

Ram raids at dairies have declined by 66%, when compared to their peak in August 2022, but we know there is more work to do.

While crime statistics in some categories have increased, some of this is because they were artificially low during Covid. Overall, offending in most categories is down on 2017 figures. But we will keep doing more to protect our communities. We will continue to invest in our Police and social agencies: to prevent crime in the first place, catch offenders, set them before the justice system, and rehabilitate offenders.