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ACT

website

Our Goals:

Make New Zealand one of the safest countries in the world.

Reduce the costs of criminal offending on the community

Key policies:

• ACT says protecting the community is a primary responsibility of government. We will provide the resources for police to be more effective in both resolving crime and crime prevention. ACT will implement a zero tolerance approach, where every crime is taken seriously, and achieve tougher sentencing through abolishing parole without exception.
• Boost police funding to allow an extra 2,500 officers to match Australia's policing rate, and allow greater focus on crime prevention and visible community patrols.
• Ensure police focus first on thieves and thugs, and only then on traffic tickets, and unintended wrongs.
• Truth in sentencing by removal of all early release and parole.
• Supervision instead of parole after every sentence, with electronic monitoring of work and family and reparation responsibilities.
• End automatic concurrent sentencing, every crime to count.
• Judges to ask for victims views on sentencing, so they can do more than write sad accounts of how badly they've been hurt
• Life to mean life for first-degree murder.
• DNA is the modern fingerprint and should be used in the same way, eg. on arrest if police deem appropriate.
• Require the maximum sentence after three repeat offences, automatically.
• End pointless family group conferences, ensure youth justice processes result in enforceable decisions, making young offenders responsible and deterring re-offending. No legal interference with schools upholding high behaviour standards.
• No suppression of criminal records.

Policy outcomes

• Reduced crime levels, increased resolution rates, and reduced reoffending rates.
• Reductions in the cost of crime to the community estimated at around $8 billion every year.
• Greater safety and freedom for law-abiding New Zealanders to go about their business.

Alliance

website

The low-down...

• The Alliance led the call for restorative justice processes in our criminal justice system. Due to our presence in Government, New Zealand now has the concept of restorative justice included in the relevant statutes. However, the needs of victims of criminal activity are still a major issue.
• The safety and security of our communities and groups within our community is a concern, especially the prevalence of gang-related crime and the rising incidence of race-based attacks.
• New Zealand has one of the highest incarceration rates in the Western world (second only to the US). Too many prisoners are Maori and poor.
• Increasing numbers of people with mental health problems are treated as criminals.
• Not everyone can access fair treatment from the justice system.
• Drug use is a health and social problem. Personal use of relatively harmless drugs such as marijuana is treated as a criminal justice issue.
• There is increasing unease at people in jail for offences they did not commit.

The next steps...

Creating safe and secure communities: Full employment, fully accessible education and health care will reduce crime rates and lead to safer communities; at the same time we need an adequately resourced police force that works positively with community groups to prevent problems occurring and to provide a speedy response to crimes.

Compensating victims of crime: Establish a Victim’s Compensation Board to oversee a dedicated fund to assist victims in recovering from crime.

Gang related crime: Address gang-related crime by a combination of adequate police resources, constructive employment schemes and confiscation of proceeds of crime.

No private prisons: Prisons are a proper function of the State and should not be passed off to the private sector to be run with the prime objective of making a profit.

Young people: Those under 18 should not be incarcerated with adults, either on remand or when sentenced; they should be in an environment designed for their requirements with particular attention to the need to reduce youth suicide in prisons.

Mental health and the justice system: Implement the “Blueprint for Mental Health” report so that those who need help get it before they commit a crime and end up in the prison system.

Accessible, equitable and effective justice system for all: Upgrade the civil and legal system so that qualified legal assistance is accessible to ordinary citizens and community organisations; establish state-funded legal centres; simplify court procedures to accommodate different cultures; amend the Official Information Act and appropriate local government legislation to allow greater public access.

Decriminalise marijuana use: Decriminalise personal marijuana use; minimum age of 18 for the use of cannabis and alcohol with more effective enforcement of such restrictions and a strong education campaign aimed at young people and their parents.

Office of Unsafe Convictions: Establish an office for unsafe convictions where inmates can bring their cases for consideration when they have exhausted all traditional appeals.

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party

website

Note that the policy laid out below is that which was on their website as of 2002. Currently there appears to be no specific Justice or Law and Order Policy set out on their site, so we have left the 2002 policy as it stands here.

Justice

Expunge all convictions for personal use, possession and cultivation of cannabis

Introduce legislation to expunge all recorded convictions for the use, possession and cultivation of personal quantities of cannabis and its by-products, including the use and possession of instruments for the use of cannabis.

Records under the Police Diversion scheme would similarly be removed, and prisoners currently incarcerated for these 'offences' would be released.

Ensure defendants are "innocent until proven guilty"

The concept of 'reverse onus', where the defendant must establish proof of innocence rather than the crown establish any guilt, is inherent to the Misuse of Drugs Act and our current approach to drug law enforcement, and would be repealed.

Ensure harm minimisation strategies govern operational practice at all levels of the New Zealand Police force.

• Re-orientate police operational behaviour so that victimless crimes are not given undue priority.
• Priority shall be given to crimes of violence and against property.
• Ensure that induction and in-service training for members of the Police force include theoretical and practical input on harm-minimisation and New Zealand's drug strategy.
• Ensure that adequate resources are available for community policing. This will involve prevention and community initiatives designed to reduce drug abuse and associated harms.
• The Police should work collaboratively to enhance the operational integration between police, health and community agencies and education to ensure, at each level, effective action based on harm minimisation strategies and priorities.

Stop unfair confiscation of property

Amend the Proceeds of Crime Act to remove the concept of 'tainted property' so that private property which is not directly obtained from criminal actions is exempt from confiscation by the Crown.

Introduce laws to stop entrapment

Introduce legislation to prevent law enforcement agencies from encouraging people to commit crimes they otherwise may not have committed.

Set up an independent Authority to deal with complaints relating to the New Zealand Police force

The existing Police Complaints Authority would be disbanded and a new body, independent of the police, will be established to investigate complaints of misconduct or injustice, Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done. The current approach involves police officers investigating their coworkers or friends, and serves to increase a widely held cynicism by the public.

Improve support available to the victims of crime

Convicted criminals should be held accountable for their actions

Recognising the role that society as a whole has in many of the causes of crime, compensation should be paid by the State to the victims of violent crime, where that crime has caused physical, emotional, psychological or financial harm.

Victims of crime should have more input in the sentence given to convicted offenders and in their later parole process.

Driving under the influence of any drug to remain illegal

Dangerous, reckless or careless driving and driving under the influence of any drug to such an extent as to be incapable of proper control of the vehicle are already offences and should remain so. Learner or Restricted Permit drivers found guilty of careless, reckless or dangerous driving while impaired by any drug should be disqualified from driving for an extended period and required to participate in education programs.

Workplace drug-testing to be tolerated only in safety-related areas

Support sensible policies that are related to actual impairment when driving vehicles or operating heavy machinery. Drug testing in the workplace should only apply in safety sensitive situations and employer responses to identified drug use should initially use appropriate personnel management procedures rather than dismissal.

Strengthen provisions to deal with smoking within confined spaces and offensive behaviour under the influence of any drug

Review the Summary Offences Act to ensure offensive behaviour under the influence of any drug can be dealt with by police. Furthermore, local government should establish bylaws that restrict consumption in public places, in a similar manner to current restrictions on alcohol consumption, and cannabis use in enclosed places should be put within the parameters of the Smokefree Environments Act.

Enhance monitoring the effectiveness of all strategies and policies

The impact of these fresh approaches will be monitored at all levels, including regular and accurate surveys and soundly-based studies, and if appropriate, consideration should be given to suitable next steps.