39408 (2024). Rt Hon Chris Hipkins to the Prime Minister

39408 (2024). Rt Hon Chris Hipkins to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement “Well, I think every quarter we want people to start to feel safer”, if so, does he expect people will feel safer at the end of quarter four 2024?

Rt Hon Christopher Luxon: I stand by my statement that we want people to start to feel safer. But it will take time to turn things around after the previous Government’s approach saw an explosion in ram raids, retail crime, and violent crime. To support our objective, the Government has an ambitious agenda to restore law and order, including: • Adding 500 new Police over the next two years • Supporting more highly visible Police on the beat in our major cities • Reinstating Three Strikes this year so repeat offenders face tougher consequences • Capping the sentence discounts judges can apply at 40 per cent • Removing the ability for offenders to repeatedly rely on ‘youth’ or ‘remorse’ as excuses to have their sentences reduced. • Introducing a new aggravating factor for serious retail crime against sole charge staff like dairy workers • Piloting military-style boot camps to set serious young offenders on a more productive path and introducing a serious youth offender category • Introducing wide-ranging new laws to crack down on gangs, including a patch ban, greater powers to stop gang members associating with each other and giving greater weight to gang membership at sentencing.