Simon Wilson's election diary: National's crimefighters do their thing

The other boys in blue: National's Mark Mitchell, Jake Bezzant, Simon Bridges and Alfred Ngaro. Photo / Simon Wilson

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There are intermediate-age girls in west Auckland, said Simon Bridges, who are being blackmailed by boys from a local high school.

His colleague Mark Mitchell elaborated: "They get them drunk, they get them naked, and then they photograph them and use the photos to blackmail them."

What? Bridges said it's a problem for all of us. "When we say sexual violence is not okay, it's not okay. That's something for all of us to take responsibility for."

Mitchell blamed pornography and the third MP in the room, Alfred Ngaro, wondered why we tolerate explicitly violent computer games like Grand Theft Auto.

It was a wet Tuesday night in Massey and the National Party had called a meeting on "public safety". A chance for election candidates to present the party's newly announced policies on crime. Upper Harbour candidate Jake Bezzant was the host.

The big message was that it's time to get tough on gangs.

Mitchell: "I believe in the last 20 to 30 years we've messed around on the fringes. We've never gone at the problem properly. We need to show some intestinal fortitude. We need to shut down the supply chains. Ban patches. When gangs members intimidate people, we need to take them out. Shut them down."

They all said things like that, but without explaining. Shut down the gangs? How?

There was also this, from Ngaro: "When kids go into gangs, it's no different to Rotary or anything else. They go to a place where they can find a sense of belonging. How should we deal with that? What options are we going to give young kids? It's good to be caring and hugging, yes, but in the National Party we walk alongside people. We're not going to say, 'Hey, that's wrong, you're a bad person. We walk alongside people and we help them."

How does "you're not a bad person" square with "taking out" the bad guys?

They started with jokes. "Look at us, all in our blue suits," said Bridges. "But you'll notice only two of us are wearing ties. We're the ones still working hard."

Ngaro said the reason he got into politics was that "John Key chose me because his slogan was Build a Brighter Future".

Silence. Was it a joke? Was it a ... race joke? It was.

"Boy, you're a tough crowd," he said. Then they laughed.

"Yeah," said Bridges, who is the party's justice spokesman, "we are tough on crime. I think that approach works. I think deterrence works. It works for the young guy who's tempted into criminal activity, and it works for the public too. People feel more confident."

The party that'll crack down on gangs. And be there for victims, too. "You can always say there are plenty of mitigating circumstances for criminals," said Bridges, "but in the end they choose to do the crime. Victims don't choose."

But also the party of something else. "None of that," said Bridges, "means the other stuff is unimportant."

He talked about their commitment to social investment, which means identifying children with the "risk profile" to become criminals and giving them the support they need to find a better path through life.

A policy announcement that day had also promised to "significantly" expand mental health facilities; make greater use of specialist courts, which help offenders deal with addiction issues; and provide newly released prisoners with the means to start their lives over in a new community.

Bridges called the specialist courts "fantastic" and said, "We want to give them more power to order what needs to be done. And what needs to be done for many of those people is not prison."

That's not at all a typical "tough on crime" way of thinking. But he clearly meant it. And when a member of the audience criticised the Youth Court for being too soft, Bridges jumped to its defence, too.

From left: National MPs Mark Mitchell, Simon Bridges and Alfred Ngaro listen as Upper Harbour candidate Jake Bezzant speaks during a meeting on crime in Massey. Photo / Simon Wilson

"By and large the Youth Court works very well," he said. "Except for the most serious crimes, we don't want to treat children like adults."

It was all so constructive. But then a man got up and said okay but where's the money? No Government has yet seriously funded programmes that are big enough and strong enough to turn young people away from crime.

Mitchell said they wanted to do it. "If [Children's Commissioner] Judge Andrew Becroft can come up with policies that work, we'll support them."

He said this was not a problem to fix in a year, or five years. "It will take a generation, but we have to start today."

Ngaro suggested the women's refuge system was the wrong way round. "Why do we take women out of the home? Turn it around. We should look after Mum and the kids in their home, and take the men away."

What do we do about crime, really? Ngaro told a story about his son when he was 17. "He went to this big event for high school kids and they were asked about how to deal with crime. All the kids from the posh schools got out their laptops and had statistics and that stuff, and they all said their piece.

"Then they asked my son, and he stood up and said: 'Salsa.' He told the story about how two cops had organised salsa dancing evenings. You paid a dollar to get in. So many people turned up they couldn't cope with them all. It's about giving kids other options."

What do we do about crime? Simon Bridges also said this:

"We're tough on crime, because crime is rising. Serious crime. There are 2000 more patched gang members in this country since the time when Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister."

He stopped. He said, "Yeah, I know, it's not all because of the Government, there are some long-range trends. Meth, and so on. But enough is enough."

It's like, they know the long, slow work of turning people away from crime works. But enough is enough! Take them out, eliminate the problem. The tough-guy stuff sounds better.