Nicole McKee: Associate Justice Minister on the changes to the Proceeds of Crime Fund

The Government hopes to further separate itself from its predecessor with new changes to the Proceeds of Crime Fund.   

The latest round of funding has granted three programmes a collective $5 million to address youth offending and meth harm.   

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says recent changes mean there's a clear and consistent assessment for new initiatives.   

She told Mike Hosking they want to ensure the projects are workable as opposed to throwing taxpayer money at the sky and hoping for results. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The governor adjusting the Proceeds of Crime Fund goal is
reducing violent crime by twenty thousand by the end of
twenty twenty nine. That's victims. Of course, part of the
change comes out of the Harry tam two point seventy
five million debicle that the Labor government oversaw. Nicole McKee
is the Associate Minister of Justice and is with us
on all of this. Very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
The final report from Harry has never been seen, has it?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's right. I think it's about twelve months over due
now and actually shows why we need to make sure
that we make better decisions when we want to support
our communities, because our communities are the ones that need
to have good outcomes. So I've changed the fund so
that we don't do things like just throw money at
people who shouldn't have it and don't deliver outcomes.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
What is there anything in there? Though? If you give
me some money and I say I'll go do something,
whether I do it or not, and I don't file
a report to tell you anything, is there anything actually
you can do about it?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
What are you going to do?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Arrest me?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I think it will actually speak further to what other
programs would get supported in the future if they don't,
I mean when they sign up. Now, what they have
to sign up to is a whole new regime. So
first of all, before we even consider them, they have
to meet certain criteria on a matrix of scoring as
to whether I will even look at their proposal. They

(01:20):
have to come through government agencies. They can't just come
straight from the community anymore. So we will always have
that extra oversight to ensure in the first place that
these projects are workable as opposed to throwing taxpayer money
because that's what it is at the sky and hoping
for results.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So do reassure me. I'll give you a couple of
examples in a moment. But there are people out there
that you give money to that do make and you
can prove it a material difference to people's lives. Is
because I just worry that you're o rung A Tamariki's
all of that. There's so much money and so many
reports and nobody seems to make any progress on anything.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, if I speak to one of the projects that
we are funding, and that's the co Hunger Billy Graham
Youth Foundation program, they are already successful in the areas
that they have been operated and in fact managed to
get community funding to keep them operated operating. I'm now
giving them one point nine million so that they can

(02:18):
expand into eight other areas and the expectation is that
they'll get community funding to keep those areas going as well.
So they'll have three years to be able to do this.
So we've taken a successful program and looking to expand
it because it is making a really big difference for
our serious youth offenders.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Good is the proceeds of crime fund being tapped as
much as it possibly can be. In other words, are
you're getting as much money in as you can do.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
You think, well, that's always a movable feast because the
money basically can sometimes sit there for years or months
depending on court processes. So how much money comes in
at any one time is we can't determine. We don't no,
we have no idea when it's going to come in
all what the costs are for being able to process

(03:06):
all of these events and court actions as well. So
for example, six million dollars had to be paid two
police to help them with storage of some of the
stuff that they've seized and their Prosecutions and mb as
well also got paid three million dollars, so that comes
out of the fund. But if you look at the flows,
we have four income flows every year and the last

(03:28):
one was three point four million and the one before
that was one point six million, so there's some healthy
amounts coming in that will support our communities and make
life better.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
For kiweis good to hear Nicole. Nice to talk to
you Nicole mcke who's the Associate Minister of Justice.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Of course.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
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