I had a look at the New Zealand Election Survey for the 2023 election at what voters issues were in 2023. It looks very similar in the major issues today. Economy and cost of living predominating, then health, climate change and crime. That has to be problem for the conservative coalition and especially for National. They haven’t moved the needle to anything except worse.
Gang profits have doubled, international organised crime strengthening their hooks, NZ has lost experienced cops, retail crime is up and often being ignored, drug use is at full blown crisis, domestic violence at 8 year highs, and the violent crime numbers are off base
Senior National Party Cabinet Minister tried to have police arrest homelessness in Auckland 18 years ago. This year he succeeded
Fining beggers will only increase their problems and moving them on will not solve the problem only spread it around.
That’s the headline of the pamphlet in the letterbox. But from their own measures is that true?
Violent crime, sexual assaults and retail crime soar under National Party
$250mn in emergency housing “savings” a year under National, while government increases corrections budget to ~$2b a year, and will surpass NZ’s ”moral and fiscal prison failure prison rate” by 2026
We don’t know where this country is going and it’s getting worse.
Radio New Zealand’s decision to conduct a review of its Israel-Palestine coverage post-7 October 2023 is commendable. We believe the presented report does not meet a credible standard in terms of breadth, methodology and analysis.
The Sensible Sentencing Trust’s free publicity, and what defunding the policy means.
Tamatha Paul’s comments on policing have been criticised by Luxon as “insane” but a closer look at what she really said shows how much her comments have been taken out of context.
Meanwhile, National’s law and order track record is only deteriorating.
National’s forary into supporting vigilante justice raises some thorny legal issues it appears National has not thught about.
Karen Chhor has made two recent claims, that youth crime is at an all time high, and that serious and persistent offending has increased dramatically to justify her boot camps policy. Neither claim appears to be true.
Ted Cruz has criticised New Zealand for requiring all Israelis to detail their military experience before coming to New Zealand. But there is a problem with this. He is wrong.
The former ACT Party President’s name suppression ceased 2 years after Jago was charged, allowing ACT to bypass critical scrutiny during the 2023 election
Golriz Ghahraman didn’t shoplift “again” – but recent media reports made it sound like she did. This article looks back on her history and her treatment by NZ’s political and media class.
It did not take long for the first example of the absurdity of the Government’s gang patch ban to appear.
The Police say it was a private trip to learn about Chinese culture, presumably because it would help their work here. Andrew Little and Anne-Marie Brady without any evidence gave it a sinister cast.
It appears that the Government’s intent to politicise youth offending by making an elite few dress up in army uniforms and march around in an effort to solve a lifetime of neglect is not working out so well.
On the same day that National had Parliament pass onerous anti gang laws to address allegedly dramatically increasing numbers of gang members Christopher Luxon lost his cool when it was pointed out to him that the Government is purging the list to reduce the numbers.
The police’s recent successful operation against the Comanchero gang could concievably have been compromised by National’s proposed gang patch ban.
Christopher Luxon yesterday celebrated a 22% reduction in crime in Downtown Auckland even though crime in the Auckland region went up by 7% during the same time. And later that day had to explain how the number of victims of violent crime had increased by 30,000.
The government plans to put up to 2000 more Kiwis behind bars by 2034 at a potential cost of up to $1.2bn per budget in today’s money. Meanwhile crime, including violent crime is increasing across all of NZ.
Dan Bidois has unwittingly exposed that National has a list of well honed talking points that are used and repeated ad mauseum. Normally within context, sometimes not.
Act minister Karen Chhour has recently adopted the mantle of victimhood and claimed that she has been under attack and feels unsafe in Parliament. But the attacks are not personal and are motivated by the damage her party is causing to Oranga Tamariki as well as to the country’s race relations.
The Royal Commission’s recently released report into abuse in care has highlighted how unsuccessful and how damaging boot camps can be at the time the Government is celebrating the opening of its latest attempted version of a boot camp.
The National Government has won in its long standing pay dispute with New Zealand police. With Australia offering $20,000 cash bonuses and attractive packages to poach our cops, what’s going to happen to an already demoralised and stretched police force?
National activist Sunny Kaushall is to head a committee with a budget of $3.6 million over two years to advise the Government on complex legal and privacy issues for which Kaushal’s qualifications are not clear.
Police Minister has been caught out claiming an increase in patrols in Central Auckland when a proper analysis of the data shows that the number of patrols have decreased.
National has announced the cancellation of funding for Cultural Reports because of the cost and the abandonment of Labour’s plan to decrease the muster despite the cost.
For a Government that hates gangs you would think that they would be more circumspect with policies that may enrich gangs and increase illicit drug use. But this is exactly what the current Government is planning.
Some of the more unusual policies from the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.
National’s Mark Mitchell has proposed a law that will require Gang Members to apply foundation to any gang insignia tattoos before they can go out into the public.
National has shown its real priorities with proposals to cut benefits that will pay for increased tax concessions for landlords and increasing prison resources in anticipation of the crime wave the increased poverty will cause.
What will New Zealand look like if Act forms part of the next Government?
This week Labour has announced toughening up of the law dealing with 12 and 13 year olds and National has been playing politics with the shooting incident after earlier saying it was not a day to play politics.
