Will the Government’s plans to tackle crime and justice work? - The Front Page

The Government's law and order policies aim to target young offenders, gangs and court backlogs.

The number of new police officers the Government can train, and how quickly, is just one issue for the coalition to sort out as it aims to get a handle on law and order.

National, Act and NZ First all campaigned on fixing crime and justice before the election, with heavy criticism of how bad issues like ram raids had got under Labour.

Those pledges translated to the coalition agreements signed between the parties in November, including an agreement between National and NZ First to train 500 new police officers over two years.

On Tuesday, Police Minister Mark Mitchell surprised Parliament by announcing they were extending that deadline to three years. That was corrected on Wednesday after reports of meetings between National and NZ First’s chiefs of staff.

Speaking to The Front Page, the Herald’s daily news podcast, NZ Herald political writer Derek Cheng said it’s likely officials told Mitchell training 500 new officers in a two-year time frame would be a tough ask.

“The [police] academy sessions aren’t even full at the moment. Retention is an issue. There are a lot of older officers retiring. Australia has been very brazen about trying to poach our police.

“[It seems Mitchell’s] been told that it’s going to be really hard and he, as any sort of reasonable minister would do, has gone to his coalition partner and said, ‘This is the story, m aybe we should have three years, not two. That’s much more realistic’ - realistic being the word that he literally used on Tuesday.

“And after Winston Peters stomped his feet, now it’s back to two, and they’re just going to have to try their best. But the Government can only do so much.”

What will likely come into force more quickly are plans to tackle gangs. The Government’s 100-day plan includes passing sweeping legislation targeting organised crime, including banning gang patches and gatherings in public and giving police officers more powers to search gang members.

Cheng said that is due by the first week of March, and Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is taking his time to avoid the laws being abused, as similar laws have been in Australia.

“There’s been a review in Queensland which found only 10 per cent of those who were subjected to the gang-specific laws were gang members, and 82 per cent had no gang links at all. In New South Wales, almost 80 per cent of the children and young people subjected to the anti-consorting orders were mistakenly identified as convicted offenders. So there’s a whole bunch of [factors] here that are potential red flags.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about the Government’s plans to target young offenders, clear a justice backlog and deal with gangs.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in crime/justice reporting who joined Newstalk ZB in 2016.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.