“The Government has turned its back on victims of serious crime with its attempt to repeal ACT’s Three Strikes Legislation, and the Greens are trying to get them to double down,” says ACT’s Justice spokesperson Nicole McKee.
“It’s bad enough that Labour are trying to scrap legislation that is designed to prevent serious crime, what’s worse is that now the Greens want to see everyone who has already been sentenced under the law have their sentence shortened.
“Golriz Gahrmanan says herself that “so few people were serving time under Three Strikes that any regime would only impact a small number of people.” That’s because they’re the worst of the worst. These offenders leave behind a long list of victims, some who will never fully recover from the trauma.
“Three Strikes was an ACT idea introduced in 2010 to send a signal to violent offenders that New Zealanders won’t tolerate repeated violent and sexual offending.
“The average Three Strikes offender has 75 convictions, and just 21 people have been sentenced to a Third Strike.
“A petition started by the ACT Party to keep the law has gained 10,000 signatures.
“At a time when shootings are rife and New Zealanders are afraid to walk around their own neighbourhoods or put their children down to sleep at night in the front room, it’s appalling that Labour and the Greens’ priorities lie with making life easier for criminals instead of protecting Kiwis.
“ACT will campaign against the repeal of this law that deters violent offending.”