Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister on the downwards trend of victim numbers, Three Strikes and sentencing laws

The Government hopes victim figures will continue on a downward trend as new legislation takes effect. 

The Justice Minister expects the data to remain volatile and says more work is still needed.  

Paul Goldsmith told Mike Hosking the three strikes and tougher sentencing laws will kick in from June.  

He says the best place to start is the small group of New Zealanders creating multiple victims. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning, seven past seven. So it looks like the government's
winning on the crime front. These new stats from the
Victims of Crime Survey show the goal of reducing victims
by twenty thousands been beaten. They look to be twenty
eight thousand fewer victims, although I'm reading something else it
gives me another number. But anyway, that's why we've got
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith who's with us. Very good morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
So we're quoting twenty eight thousand fewer victims, which is
a win, but I've got the paperwork in front of
me that says thirty four thousand fewer victims. Do we
know what the number is or doesn't matter. We're just winning.
So therefore that's the main point.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, it's twenty eight thousand since October twenty three when
the government came in, and that's when that was the
baseline for the figure. So we wanted to reduce the
overall number of victims of crime by twenty thousand from
that figure that it was, which was one hundred and
eighty five thousand New Zealanders a year of being victims
of violent crime. So rather than twenty we've gone down

(00:48):
twenty eight, which is very encouraging, and it's good news
that we promise to restore law and order and we're
making good progress on that, recognizing you know, this is
a whole community wide thing that's going on.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, I was going to say in Canterbury there's a
forty three percent decrease fifteen thousand fewer victims in Canterbury alone.
Can we explain any of this?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, I mean that there's obviously variations down different parts.
Canterbury obviously making good progress. That there was a lot
of violent crime and it comes and goes in cycles
to some degree. But I think fundamentally the signal that
we've been sending as a government has been very clear
right from the start. You know, you've got to remember,

(01:30):
for about five years, the previous government was all about,
you know, don't worry, it's somebody else's fault if you're
doing this, a culture of excuses, we're focusing on reducing
the prison population, all this sort of stuff, and we
came in very clearly saying no, no, no, no, there
is no somebody else to blame. People have got to

(01:51):
be personally accountable for this. We're not going to be
talking about all that and our focus on is reducing
the number of victims of crime. That's what we've got
to folks, the system on and it's paying dividends. But yes,
obviously you've got a lot of work to do.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Well, I was going to say, because what you appear
to have done is get the cops back on the beat.
All of that's good, and you've got a sense in
the community that people feel safe. We've seen that from surveys.
But a lot of the work that you want to
do in justice is yet to actually pass the House,
the discounting and all that sort of stuff in the courts.
So this could be even more effective by the time
I don't know whatever, get to the election next year

(02:25):
for example.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well we hope. So, yes, we've passed the three strikes legislation,
we're passed the tougher sentencing regime, but they take effect
from June. So yes, that'll have a bigger impact because
you you know, thinking about it logically, if you want
to reduce the number of victims of crime, the best
place to start is that very small group of New
Zealanders who are creating multiple victims and putting them in

(02:48):
prison getting them out of circulation. So they're not creating
new victims and so that will continue. There's obviously been
an increase in the prison population, significant one since we
came into power, and that's that's appropriate because we've got
to get on top of the situation.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Good stuff. Appreciate it. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith more with
Marke Mitchell, Police Minister after eight in his regular slot
of course, just on those numbers. So there's still one
hundred and fifty seven thousand victims of violent crime, which
is a lot of people, but it's thirty four thousand down,
eighteen percent decrease and as I mentioned Canterbury, that's a
good news story. Auckland in particular has had a very
big decrease eleven thousand pure victims in Auckland nineteen percent decrease.

(03:24):
Why Kato's, as far as I can work out, it's
the only region that's actually gone up. There's more violent
crime and whycatter So I'm not sure what that's about.
But watching that press conference yesterday with Goldsmith, Mitchell and
lux and I thought Mitchell made a very good point
just on the gang patches because everyone goes, oh, it's
not going to work, and it has worked and We
had a cop on the show the other day said

(03:45):
it surprised her that it had worked, but there seems
no doubt. And what it was is vibes. Basically, it's
a government saying don't dick with us, or else you're
in trouble. And the gangs, as Mark put it in
the press conference yesterday, no longer staunch up and they
go to places like hospitals and stuff because they're not
wearing a patch. They're not feeling as cool as they
used to, and they're not making big dicks of themselves

(04:07):
the way they used to. And things have settled down
and all it takes is a bit of leadership and
a belief that you mean what you say. Simple a
eleven past seven.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
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