Act invites voters to punish 'soft' Labour

By ANNE BESTON

Act chose the entrance to Mt Eden Prison for its official campaign launch, where party leader Richard Prebble delivered the party's flagship law and order policy.

He said his party wanted offenders to serve their full court-imposed sentences and wanted a tougher approach to minor crime - the so-called zero-tolerance approach.

"If they can clean up New York, we can clean up Auckland," said Mr Prebble.

Among those attending the policy launch was Rita Croskery, the mother of murdered Papakura pizza delivery man Michael Choy.

Mr Prebble asked for those concerned about crime to give their party vote to Act as a de facto referendum on crime because Labour had ignored the referendum on crime at the last election, where 92 per cent voted for tougher sentencing for violent offenders.

"A party vote for Act is a referendum that Parliament cannot ignore," Mr Prebble said.

The 1999 referendum was sparked by a 300,000-plus petition organised by Norm Withers, whose 70-year-old mother was bashed in a 1997 robbery.

"Parliament has treated the referendum, and the public, with contempt," Mr Prebble said.

Labour had removed the 10-year sentence for murder, cut short prison sentences and reduced the minimum period a violent offender had to spend in jail.

Labour and National had been releasing offenders early for more than 30 years but New Zealanders were more likely to be victims of violent crime than Americans were, he said.

Act would reintroduce Mr Prebble's Truth in Sentencing Bill into the next Parliament and its policy would require more police and more prisons.

He said the policy would cost just $3 a person each week, yet crime cost the average household $4000 last year.

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