“The Government’s determination to resurrect the Three Strikes Bill into law is expensive virtue signalling, not a solution to crime. It does not work,” said Valerie Morse, member of Peace Action Wellington.

Submissions on the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill 2024 close at midnight tonight. The Bill provides for a 3-stage regime of escalating penalties for repeat offenders.

“There is no conclusive evidence here or anywhere else that they reduce crime or make communities safer. There is, however, plenty of evidence that they are expensive and racist in application.”

“With this law, the National-Act-NZ First Coalition will be spending at least $18 million by 2060 on a failed policy that does nothing to address actual crime. That enormous sum of money could be spent on communities suffering extreme poverty and hardship right now. This would go some way to addressing the actual drivers of crime.”

“The Government’s own documents illustrate just how racist this law is:

As of March 2022, just prior to the repeal of the old law, approximately half of first strike offenders were Māori, and of the 21 offenders who received a third strike, 81% were Māori. Over 2018/19 and 2019/20 combined, Māori were almost nine times more likely to receive a first strike than those of European/other ethnicity and over 18 times more likely to receive a second strike. These figures illustrate that Māori offenders and their whānau were strongly impacted by the previous regime. (Regulatory Impact Assessment - Reinstating Three Strikes sentencing law, Ministry of Justice).

The Government has not consulted with any Māori groups about this law change because the Bill is a priority in the Coalition’s quarterly action plan. This is despite its known disproportionate impacts.

“Three Strikes was a failure the first time around. Here we are 14 years later, and the only responses to crime that Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has on offer are this same failure and bizarrely, a proposal to relax gun laws. It shows a real lack of interest in evidence-based solutions to crime. Instead this government is using populist ‘law’ n ’order’ ideas that are not the basis for good public policy.”

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