The reality that nearly all of our retail businesses in New Zealand have experienced some form of crime in the last year is a damning indictment on the state of law and order under Chris Hipkins’ Labour Government, National’s Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell says.

“A new report from Retail NZ has shone light to the issue of retail crime, reporting that 92 per cent of retail businesses have been exposed to Labour’s crime wave in the last year.

“They estimate the total cost to the industry at $2.6 billion annually, which is just another way Labour is managing to keep the cost of living sky high.

“This information comes just a couple of months after Countdown reported an 800 per cent increase in security incidents at their supermarkets.

“Sadly, this reflects the data that Police are collecting nationally, which shows that retail crime has doubled under Labour.

“Chris Hipkins has utterly failed to deal with increasing crime when retail staff are having to resort to wearing body camera’s to protect themselves from criminal activity.

“This is totally unacceptable. Kiwis deserve to feel safe in their homes, communities, and the places they go to shop or work. But that is not the reality under Labour which has taken a soft-on-crime approach.

“Chris Hipkins’ Labour Government has had six years to address these growing issues and have utterly failed. Instead, they have focused on reducing the prison population by 30 per cent, despite the fact violent crime has increased and New Zealanders are feeling less safe in their communities.

“The cost of reinforcing the local dairy has only one way to go, and that’s straight onto their price tag. The immense cost of this crime wave that Labour has totally ignored is just another expense that the squeezed middle are expected to absorb.

“National has comprehensive plan to tackle the tsunami of retail offending which is largely driven by youths.

“National will combat youth offending by creating a new Young Serious Offender category targeting ringleaders, establishing bootcamps to set serious young offenders on a more productive path, and empowering community groups to break the cycle of reoffending.

“This election is going to be close. New Zealand cannot afford another three years of a high taxing, high spending Labour, Greens, Te Pati Māori government. The only way to guarantee change is to vote National.”

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