The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today.
“Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not acceptable in our society,” McKee said in a press statement.
“New Zealanders are rightly concerned about violent crime in our country. Everyone in New Zealand has the right to feel safe in their homes, businesses and communities.
“This Government will ensure that sentencing for repeat offending properly recognises the harm caused to victims and communities. That is why we are bringing back a revised Three Strikes law.
“We are making changes to create a more workable regime and also to address issues that arose under the previous law, such as capturing minor offending.
Today’s announcement provides details of the Government’s plans for a revised Three Strikes law. Introduced in the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010, the previous Three Strikes legislation was repealed in 2022.
The new regime will:
- Cover the same 40 serious violent and sexual offences as the former legislation, with the addition of the new strangulation and suffocation offence;
- Introduce a new requirement that the Three Strikes law will only apply to sentences above 24 months;
- Extend the use of the “manifestly unjust” exception to allow some judicial discretion to avoid very harsh outcomes and address outlier cases;
- Provide a limited benefit for guilty pleas to avoid re-traumatisation of victims, and to improve court delays; and
- See that people who commit murder at second or third strike receive an appropriately lengthy non-parole period.
“We are sending a strong message that repeat offending will not be tolerated,” Nicole McKee says.
“This is a priority for the Government and continues the progress we have already made on restoring law and order, through changes to repeal the funding for section 27 reports and measures to crack down on gangs.”
The Minister intends to bring a draft bill and paper to Cabinet by the end of June, and to introduce the bill to the House soon after that.
Image credit: Unsplash+
Yes thank heavens it’s back. Time for more jails , accountability. The criminals have to answer finally. Enough slips on the hand. Jails that make crimes work and help the community. Tired of talk now stop the crimes.
No way this’ll be used against us by the next woke labour government 😉
No vaccine? Strike 1
You posted WHAT?! Strike 2
You’re refusing our CBDC?! Strike 3, 4 and 5!!!
Totally agree 100%. A very slippery slope
It needs to start much earlier.
Bring back corporal punishment like in Singapore.
Public floggings and repercussions for parental neglect for criminals under 18/20.
If one commits repeatedly in-human acts, one has forsaken those human rights bestowed upond free men and ought to be shown that society does not condone grave violations of those rights.
Including BTW the right to bodily and medical autonomy.
Ashley Mengele, that goes for you:
Ashley Bloomfield is to become the first professor of a new Public Policy Impact Institute at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Here is the dean of that outfit:
https://profiles.auckland.ac.nz/w-bagg
Here is the cherry: The faculty possesses the only brain bank in New Zealand. This brain bank contains over 400 diseased brains bequeathed to the medical school.
I know a strange looking building in Wellington where that faculty would find plenty of specimens.
Good for violent crime BUT …
In some states in the US, for example, you get done 3 times for smoking cannabis you go to a federal pen for 20 years. People have also been prosecuted for using cannabis for reducing pain in terminal illness.
So, there should be no “feature creep” on this legislation but I do wonder under a Labour government if there would be?
And as another poster mentioned, what if you refuse the next mandated vaccine or post material on social media that is labelled “misinformation” or “disinformation”.
With legislation, “feature creep” is the most dangerous – the legislation itself is the sharp end of a wedge, and the wedge can be driven in further in the future.
Take their benefits away if they steal and make them show up for community work if they want a benefit. Plenty of scrub cutting, picking up litter etc to be done. Get caught shop lifting 3 times and boom benefit gone. That will teach them pretty quick.
For people who want to smoke cannabis, if you’re not fit to work because of drug taking then you also should have your benefit removed. My son worked with a guy who was difficult in terms of his up and down personality, my son couldn’t work out what was driving this. They had random drug tests at work and bingo the guy had cannabis in his system. He was putting others at work in danger and his nature was unpredictable, needlesss to say he lost his job. Just get off the drugs people and address the reason why you’re getting out of it, clean up your act and live clean, you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel.
I think Brian Tamakis man up programme could do wonders for so many more people in this country.
I am dreaming of road-side chain gangs, made up of Waspnest criminals and their corporate bribers, working for once.