David Farrar: Bad and good from the Government on law & order

The bad:

The Government has introduced a Bill today to restore the Three Strikes sentencing law, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says.

“New Zealanders are rightly concerned about violent crime. We are delivering on our commitment to introduce a revised Three Strikes law as one of our key law and order priorities.

This law would be better called a zero strikes law. It does two things:

• Wipes out every current strike offence from current offenders. Over 10,000 serious offenders get their warnings removed, and they get reset to zero strikes. Appalling
• Makes it much harder to get a strike. The old law provided certainty that if you commit a serious crime, you get a strike. This law will reduce the numbers who get a strike by around 75% as no strike will be gained if the judge gives them a light sentence of under two years (which will encourage lighter sentences)

This law is window dressing that is next to useless. It is so water down the Green Party could happily vote for it.

However other sentencing changes are more worthwhile:

• Capping the sentence discounts that judges can apply at 40%
• Preventing repeat discounts for youth (18 to 25) and remorse, which had allowed for “lenient sentences”.
• Introducing a new aggravating factor to address offences against sole charge workers and those whose home and business are interconnected
• Encouraging the use of cumulative sentencing for offences committed while on bail, in custody, or on parole.
• Implementing a sliding scale for early guilty pleas with a maximum sentence discount of 25%, reducing to a maximum of 5% for a guilty plea entered during the trial.
• Amending the principles of sentencing so a judge has to take into account the victims’ interests.

Hopefully the Government will listen to reason at select committee and strengthen the Three Strikes law. Otherwise they would be better not to even pass it, as it is so toothless.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.