Mike Hosking: We need more than talk over the rampaging crime spree

I note the some of the media have reacquainted themselves with crime.

The Government to their credit managed to quieten the whole mess down for a while by disposing of Poto Williams who, although spectacularly useless, was really just a sacrificial lamb to get the heat off the Government over an issue they have been woefully found wanting on.

Chris Hipkins announced he would visit every police district in the country. We had the Police Association on telling us they liked Hipkins and he had read his briefing papers, so things were looking up.

Meantime the ram-raids, abuse, violence, and lawlessness rolled on given thugs aren't really interested in political appointments.

Fast forward to this past weekend, and suddenly it's back. One headline: "Auckland at a tipping point."

There was another suggesting the Prime Minister found all these break-ins atrocious. And then yet another saying she rejected the idea that nothing happened to the people who commit the crimes.

So upside of all this is, at least, those who were sucked into thinking it was no longer an issue have woken up to the reality. The great hope is they don't fall for it again.

The Prime Minister can find it as atrocious as she likes, but that’s not the point. The point is what, beyond sacking the last Minister is she, has she, and will she do about it?

Their initial position was to deny it all. That's their standard go to, pretend it isn't real.

Then when that fails, tell us what they’ve done previously. That is normally how much money they spent, what sort of working group they set up, and in this case how they sort of got more cops on the beat. Their figures never include those who have left, so it doesn’t really count.

But here is the real issue, it doesn’t actually matter what you have done, what matters is whether it worked?

Given the answer is no, it then proves conclusively that what you did wasn’t go enough and more needs to be done.

That's the problem with being a government for five years. It actually falls on your decisions, your solutions, and your actions. After five years, with shop after shop, window after window, and punk after punk running rampant, I don’t care how many cops are out there, it isn't anywhere close to being enough.

The fact a lot of it happens in front of us in broad daylight is proof positive that whatever consequences there are, they don’t work either.

The sort of consequences most of us want involve these people being removed from society for sustained periods of time, which clearly isn't happening.

After five years, denial and obfuscation are not policies. And as of next year, they won't be winning votes.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.