Written By: - Date published: 10:56 am, September 26th, 2008 - 39 comments
Categories: crime, national, spin -
Tags: 'new zealand sucks' campaign
I remember the first time I met Simon Power, when he had just come into Parliament. He struck me as a man who would be a future leader of National and an excellent one at that – articulate, informed, and moderate. Oh, what he has let himself become over 9 years in opposition – just another proponent of National’s ‘New Zealand sucks’ campaign
Today, Power says “Labour should be ashamed that they’ve left it till six weeks before the election at the end of their third term to do anything much for the victims of crime”. He disses the new Victims’ Charter, website, and 0800 number but what does he propose in addition? Oh yeah, the Victim Compensation Levy that is somehow meant to collect $50 from every convicted criminal and distribute it to help victims with their costs. Yeah, that’s really great; a paltry sum that wil probably cost more to administer than it will raise, that’ll make victims feel better.
The fact is the best thing we can do for the victims of crime is reduce the conditions that lead to crime in the first place. The best things that Labour has done for victims is lead the creation of 350,000 new jobs. Unemployment has dropped by 100,000. Wages, particularly, at the low end, are up sharply. That has seen a huge drop in theft and injected money into depressed communities. More money for education and training has seen more young people with positive options in life. Reducing poverty, economic and social, is the best way to reduce crime.
Labour has done that and crime has come down. Despite the population growing 10% , better Police recording practice, and evidence of higher reporting of crimes, the number of recorded crimes in New Zealand last year was actually 12,000 fewer than in 1999 (and 14,000 more were resolved). Recorded crimes per capita are down 10% since 1999, 25% since the dark days of the early 1990s. [stats 1, 2]
Campaigning for ineffectual charters and impractical levies is all well and good but building a healthier soceity where fewer people choose to commit crimes is what really matters. Labour can be proud of their record, which is based on the ideal that New Zealand can be a kinder, better place to live; would that the Nats believed in this country, rather than always talking it down.
[Update: Turns out an international survey rates NZ the best country in the world for victim support. Power's claims don't stack up; it's just more 'NZ sucks'. Hat-tip, Russell Brown]
Facebook
Twitter
Scoopit!
Pat – fair comment, but National certainly had the first opportunity to do something meanwhile, rather than continue to privatise everything, fight internally, and run the country into the ground.
Labour should have done more, but the reality is, with more gang members than police officers in NZ – the cops are a tad hog tied.
Compound that with the fact your bank teller earns more in a year than a police officer (and only has to deal with the occasional armed robbery) it’s no wonder that the police force is in such dire straits. I wouldn’t want to deal with the scum of NZ on a starting salary of 38K a year (ASB Bank Tellers start on 42K)
Banning the importation of methamphetamine products won’t acheive much. There’s already plenty of drug smuggling boats heading out to sea to meet the boats from China, do their swaps and continue back to Westhaven Marina. Again, it’s a lack of resources and support for the necessary agencies.
HNZ in Napier is sending a good strong message to those involved in manufacturing, who live in a HNZ Home. Only problem – HNZ don’t do anywhere near enough inspections to curb this issue from happening.
Pat – P has been a worldwide problem. I’ve said this before it doesn’t matter what the government’s policies. Countries with the death penalty for selling it still have a problem. As I said it’s an exercise in futility to enforce prohibition. If it wasn’t P it would be something else. Face it humans are always going to seek some chemical to alter their minds there’s no fighting it.
Lprent – Still won’t work. Most P isn’t manufactured from cold medicines. There are around half a dozen factories in the world that produce the precursors. If you really want to get rid of it you need to strictly control what comes out of those factories, a lot of what they make is siphoned off for drug making. To do that you need international cooperation. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Just let them have it. Their brains will tutn to mush and their teeth fall out. anyone testing positive gets shipped out to Nauru for two years with no due process. q.e.d. gee thats the whole National Party. seeya guys. bye bye for now.
As I understand it more cold medicine goes towards making P than fixing colds, additionally, I think but I’m not entirely sure (not an expert on the subject sorry!) that one of the most dangerous steps chemical wise is extracting the ephedrine from cold medicine. So certainly further restrictions on that could reduce some of the danger involved in making P.
While I acknowledge that the arguments against prohibition are quite strong, the only thing I cannot reconcile is the addictive nature of drugs. Addiction doesn’t exactly make for fully informed decisions.
Marijuana how ever, which I’m strongly against myself, despite the massive damage it does to teens aged less than about 16 (and I have seen myself happen to people close to me) probably should be legalised. It has serious effects on the frontal cortex, so legalisation but very strong provision to prevent under 16s having access to it.
I’m not at all surprised they are claiming we are terrible for victims rights when we are best in the world, kinda fits the pattern eh. Drowning in red tape? 2nd most business friendly country in the world. My main concern, especially given the rights easy run with the right biased media, is that should national win, in a year or so’s time we get, hey look, NZ is great!! Look at all these things, best in the world for victims rights, 2nd best for business friendliness.