Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why does it take so long for good ideas to become law? - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Anyone out there, hands up, who doesn't agree with the Justice Minister's plan to introduce harsher punishments for people who assault first responders?

I feel like this is a complete no-brainer.

I mean, there are some out there who would argue that no assault is acceptable at all and that if you create two tiers of punishment where you've got the police officers on one level and then the normal humans on another - what you're saying is that some assaults are more acceptable than others.

And that's a fair argument to make, but I think reality has a role to play here, and the reality is different, isn't it?

The reality is you and I, regular citizens, can just walk away if we see something happening, if we see there's somebody who needs a bit of help, but we can see it's not safe - we can just keep on going.

First responders can't. For police and ambo workers in the fire service, it is their job to go into those situations that are often quite risky because people are upset or people have been substance abusing or whatever.

And having a different level of offense for them is an acknowledgement, I think, that they face greater risk, so they should have greater protection.

 Now, obviously, just attaching a higher punishment to it doesn't mean it's necessarily going to deter someone from doing something, especially if they're off their face and they're making bad decisions.

But I would be surprised if it doesn't have an effect over time. As the punishments start coming in, I suspect it will have an impact - the impact of making first offenders a no go.

I find it hard to believe that anybody would assault an ambulance worker, because, you know, is there anybody who was there to help you more than an ambulance worker?

They're not there to arrest you. They're just there to help you. But it happens. 

At the last count, there were 12 assaults on ambulance workers every single week, and that was before COVID. So probably like everything since then, I imagine the numbers would have gone up.

But here's the question I have about this, right? This is not a new idea. 

From what I can see, this idea was first pitched by New Zealand First seven years ago. It got to a second reading, never went any further. 

Same as with the coward's punch, which has just been announced today after being first pitched seven years ago. On the face of it, I would say a it's good idea.

So why does it take so long for good ideas to become law?

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