Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald political editor on the Government claiming they've surpassed their violent crime reduction target

The Police Minister says the patch ban for gangs has changed their behaviour, and made people feel safer. 

Gang laws are among policies the Government's crediting for surpassing its target for reducing violent crime victims - although it admits the data is volatile. 

NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan says the Government will still need to prove if they can keep meeting these targets long-term.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thomas Coglin, the Herald's political editors, with us A Thomas. Listen,
this business of the government hitting this crime target four
years early, this is obviously good news for them, right
goes without saying.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, it does go without saying. And I think there's
no political saying, or if there isn't, it probably should
be that it's never too early to declare victory, which
is what the government is doing here. You'll remember remember
a few a few years ago the Labor government declared
victory on the budget responsibility rules a little bit earlier,
and then they started borrowing again after that declared victory.
So I think the government's sort of taken a nice

(00:32):
surprise here that they've got the crime target at the
target as a twenty twenty nine target, they wanted to
reduce the number of victims of violent crime by twenty
thousand by twenty twenty nine compared with October twenty twenty
three according to the latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey,
which isn't actually out yet, that they're releasing the data
a bit early, they have had that target, So I

(00:52):
think I think that declaring victory now because there's probably
a good chance that the number creeps up again. That
Paul Goldsmith, Justice Minister is saying that date is a
bit lumpy, So so you know, they'll might go down
a bit further, it might bump up a bit more.
So I guess that the proof, the proof of whether
they are successful as whether they can keep that number
down for the long term or whether it bounces around

(01:15):
a bit. But you can you can certainly see why
when it has gone down as dramatically as it has done,
that they declaring an early victory.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Only trouble with it is we can't be sure how
much of this is actually falling within the coalition's term
versus Labour's term, right, because it covers both.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I yes, I think I think that is. I actually
don't have the exact period there, but.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
February twenty three to February twenty four and Luxon becomes
Prime Minister in December twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Two or there you go. Yeah, so yeah, you're you're
you're quite right. So so yeah, and once again, you
know the proof of whether this is successful will be
whether they managed to maintain maintain that that victory.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, brilliant. Okay, Now what do you make of this
business with Chris luxon supporting the term pregnant women. Is
he going to get himself into trouble with some sensitive
members of our community?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Uh? Yeah, Well, i'd imagine so when you do, when
you do go out on the limb on issues like this,
you tend to you tend to to make yourself a
target for for some criticism. So I imagine he is
going to be a target for criticism issue. You know,
I haven't seen any polling on this. It's not a
very it's not a very well polled area, but I

(02:22):
would I would imagine that the government focus groups and
polls pretty pretty clearly on it, and he's probably probably
with somewhere within the pack of mainstream uteal and political opinion.
It's interesting, you know that the most national well I
shouldn't say most, a large number of NETS were in
favor of the conversion therapy bands. So they're not they're
not they're not totally you know that they're not completely

(02:45):
anti transgender or anti you know, modern gender sort of theory.
I guess, yeah, that there is a large diversity of
opinion within the NETS on that issue. But but you know,
on this particular one on the on the issue of language.
The PM and and Katie Costello, who's New Zealand First Minister,

(03:06):
have been pretty clear where they stand.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, Thomas, what are the senior doctors looking for when
they go on strike? What is it they want?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
They so, Simon Brown is there's a bit of a
dispute here they they are looking for, I guess some
better conditions to pay as everyone as everyone is. Simmyon
Brown is actually pushing back on on on on on
the amount of pushing back on them quite strongly, saying
that their average total remuneration at the moment is three

(03:34):
hundred and forty three thousand dollars. Now that the doctors
are pushing back on that figure cited by Browns and
there's a bit of jiggery pokery and back and forth
on that issue, but it is, I mean, it is.
It is one of those challenging issues. I actually spoke
to Bill English a little while ago on the issue
of gps who are who are quite well paid as well,
and and he made the point that actually, with other

(03:57):
professionalized areas of work where people are paid pretty well,
some areas of the health system are actually poorly remunerated.
When you look at other sort of top level jobs,
and so they're looking across as you know, some of
the top lawyers and accountants or whatever and feeling and
feeling a wee bit hard done by. And of course
when you're when you're top salary medical specialist and you're

(04:18):
a New Zealand citizen, then you've got the opportunity of
hopping on one way plane to Australia one way take
it to Australia and increasing your pay that way. So
the governments of the government's pretty torn here between obviously
wanting to keep these people here they know they can
name their price, but also, you know, all that money
has to come from somewhere. The health system has been

(04:38):
increasing its baseline spending like crazy over the last ten years.
There really is limited money to go around, and a
lot of that money, you know, it needs to go
to these salary medical specialists, but it also needs to
go to frontline nurses who are also who are also
angling for pay.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah fair enough, Hey, thank you, Thomas, really appreciate it.
Thomas Coglan, the Herald's political editor. For more from Heather
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