Deny bail to foreigners, says Brash

National Party leader Don Brash is calling for all foreigners charged with serious offences in New Zealand to be automatically denied bail. His call is in response to two high-profile cases of foreigners fleeing while on bail.

On a day when the Fight Against P march reached Parliament, National capitalised on the emphasis on the class A drug and attacked the Government for its drug policies that it said were inadequate.

National said the case of Jian Zong Xie and Hong Quin Huang, believed to be trying to flee to China after being bailed on charges of importing enough drugs to make $15 million worth of methamphetamine, showed it was too easy to get bail.

The Chinese couple are the second example of foreign nationals in New Zealand skipping bail while facing serious drug charges - Chinese students Hao Yang and Weikun Jin fled the country after being bailed on methamphetamine charges.

"Why should all foreigners charged with imprisonable offences not be automatically denied bail?" Dr Brash demanded of the Prime Minister in the House.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, answering on behalf of Helen Clark, said it would be "extraordinary and extreme" if all foreigners were denied bail.

Ministers were not responsible for individual bail decisions made by the courts and did not criticise court decisions.

But he said he had no doubt that the courts would take into account the frequency in recent times in which skipping bail had happened.

National's law and order spokesman, Simon Power, later played down Dr Brash's comment, saying National believed it was too easy to get bail and that the "flight risk" of foreigners needed to be given more weight by judges. Mr Power said it was "outrageous" that there had been two cases of people fleeing overseas while on bail on drug charges.

"People suspected of involvement in this filthy industry should never get bail," he said.

"And this should apply especially to foreign nationals, who should automatically be considered to be flight risks."

The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.