Opinion: Hold on law and order

National MP for Hamilton East David Bennett. Photo / File

As Kiwis, we like to think that we live in one of the safest countries in the world. Safe communities means keeping a strong hold on law and order. However, that strong hold is beginning to weaken. This Government's soft on crime approach has led to 1400 more people joining gangs nationwide and a 44 per cent increase in gang members in the Waikato since it took office.

The Government has stated that the increase in gang numbers has come from Australian deportees, however Police Minister Stuart Nash stated in written questions that only 22 deportees since November 2017 were gang affiliated. This clearly indicates that this is a domestic issue.

With the increase in gang members, we've seen methamphetamine become a bigger problem. But the number of gang members being charged for drugs has hardly increased to keep pace with gang drug crimes. This Government's approach to law and order is fuelling this activity.

The current Government is focused on reducing the prison population by 30 per cent over 15 years. The only plan they have to achieve this political target is to soften our bail, parole and sentencing laws to make it easier for criminals to get out of prison earlier and harder for them to get there in the first place.

When comparing the first six months of 2017 to the first six months of 2019 we have seen a rise of 59 per cent for individuals being granted parole, and electronically monitored bail has risen by 101 per cent. This shows the Government's desire to let prisoners out into the community, just in order to meet some arbitrary promise to the community.

Our corrections system is designed to ensure offenders are held responsible for their crimes and the harm they cause, it is also designed for rehabilitation and ensuring public safety. Earlier prison releases will mean offenders will not be equipped with the skills they need to be fully rehabilitated upon re-entry into society.

These actions will only lead to increased re-offending rates and will jeopardise the long term safety of our communities.

The recent crime spike in Flagstaff and Rototuna sparked community action to re-open the Flagstaff Community Police Station. Locally, this Government promised to re-establish community police stations before the last election, but it hasn't taken action towards this — as it's an operational issue for NZ Police to decide, not central government.

The current Government should not have misled the public in this way. This is just another failure on this Government's law and order agenda. We have also seen the Government mislead the public around new policing numbers.

The coalition agreement determined 1800 new police officers would be added to the existing force. Everyone naturally expected that would mean 1800 net new frontline police officers working in our communities (over and above those who leave), when in fact it only means 1800 trained recruits.

This Government can't be trusted on law and order. Whether it's the soft approach to gangs, treating drugs as a health issue instead of a criminal one, letting prisoners out on parole and home detention in order to artificially construct a lower prison population, falsely leading communities to believe additional community police stations would be opened or misleading the public over the additional frontline police numbers.