Chester Borrows MP
National Party Police Spokesman

15 August 2007

Crime Ministers don't bother to meet for four years

The Labour Government is being negligent over tackling serious crime, says National Party Police spokesman Chester Borrows.

He is releasing an answer to a parliamentary question which shows the Crime Reduction Ministers' Group has not met since June 2003.

"That's unbelievable. How do they think they're going to fight crime if they haven't bothered to meet for four years?

"It's not exactly as if crime has reduced in that time.

"In those four years there have been huge increases in violent crime: overall violence has increased 11%, with robberies up by a staggering 49%, serious assaults 17%, intimidation and threats 12%, and sexual offences 8.4%. Youth violence has increased by 44%.

"And it's not as if the Crime Reduction Strategy that Labour developed was perfect.

"Treasury has said the strategy has 'no particular focus on stopping inter-generational crime', and Justice officials have conceded that 'there is no Government publication which is the Crime Reduction Strategy. It is simply a set of decisions recorded in Cabinet papers and minutes. Strategies to address most of these priorities were in fact already in place or in preparation'.

"Typical of this is their lack of action on organised crime, one of the strategy's seven priorities. The only action on gangs up until toddler Jhia Te Tua was tragically killed in May was a paper entitled 'A stocktake on what is known about organised crime' - and that was before the 2005 election.

"That's two years of no action on gangs.

"Another priority under the strategy was supposed to be sexual violence, but it took them three years to establish the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence, with Women's Affairs Minister Lianne Dalziel admitting they had taken their 'eye off the ball' by leaving it for so long.

"Another priority was youth offending, but once again the Ministers' Group on the Youth Offending Strategy did not meet for three years.

"Labour has dropped the ball on serious crime.

"There is one common denominator in all of this, and that is Mark Burton. It's time to change the Minister."

ENDS

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