Stuart Smith
National MP
Kaikoura
The crime wave in New Zealand is out of control, ranging from youths stealing cars and ram-raiding businesses to street violence, and we have had enough. Gangs are running rampant, emboldened by Labour’s soft-on-crime approach.
Since Labour took office in 2017, gang numbers have increased by 66 per cent and recently Opotiki was forced to close down because of a gang funeral. It is simply unacceptable that whole communities must bow to the illegal whims of criminals to the point where children are prevented from going to school.
But help is on the way with our law and order policy, and the message is clear: if you choose to align yourself with a gang and engage in criminal activities, you will face more severe consequences.
We will ban gang patches in public, stop gangs gathering in public, stop gang members associating with each other and stop gangs accessing guns.
We will make membership of a gang an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing, so gang members convicted of an offence face tougher consequences for their crimes.
This is another initiative that will help restore law and order to New Zealand, along with a range of solutions National has already announced, including:
- Banning gang patches in public places.
- Allowing police to issue dispersal notices where gang members come together in public to intimidate, threaten, and sometimes assault members of the public.
- Giving police non-association powers to prevent gang members from communicating and planning criminal activity.
- Giving police the warrantless search powers they need to take the guns out of the hands of violent armed gang members.
- Cracking down on serious youth offenders by creating young offender military academies.
Gang members prey on the most vulnerable people peddling drugs and thriving on intimidation. It is unbelievable that Labour funded a meth rehabilitation programme run by a Mongrel Mob member.
Under a National government, communities like ours will be safer places to raise your families.