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Labour

website

Law and Order

Our commitment is to crack down on burglary and youth crime so that we break the cycle of crime and build more fences at the top of the cliff.

LABOUR’S VISION

Labour believes we should all be able to feel safe and protected at home, at work, on our streets, in our communities.

LABOUR’S RECORD

We have been working hard to make New Zealand a safer place to live in and we are focusing on youth crime in order to break the crime cycle. We have:

• Increased police numbers. Police and other support staff numbers are at their highest level ever, having increased by around 450 since 1999.
• Passed tough new laws to keep the worst offenders in jail.
• Kept our word and cracked down on burglaries with hundreds fewer every week.
• Invested an extra $90 million over four years in a Youth Justice package to help reduce youth crime.

LABOUR’S PRIORITIES

Our major new initiatives to crack down on youth crime include:

• Implementing our Crime Reduction Strategy, which recognises and tackles the root causes of crime.
• Intensive rehabilitation programmes in a secure environment for repeat offenders.
• Day reporting centres focusing on educational and job needs.
• Extra intervention programmes for at-risk families.
• Improved Family Group Conference processes.

Our tough new sentencing and parole laws:

• Increase the minimum period before the worst murderers can be considered for parole from 10 to 17 years.
• Remove automatic release at 2/3 of sentence. Serious offenders can now be made to serve their full sentence.
• Make community safety the paramount consideration for the Parole Board.

To support the police we will:

• Invest more in operational roles.
• Establish a Modern Cadet scheme to promote policing as a career option.

To give victims a voice we will:

• Pass the Victims’ Rights Bill to give victims of crime rights by law.
• Increase victims’ rights by meeting the security needs of victims at court and extending the ‘court services for victims’ programme

A slightly different version of this can be found at the Labour Party site here in Adobe Acrobat pdf format.

Libertarianz

website Law and Order Policy and a seperate Justice Policy.

Law and Order

All laws against victimless 'crimes' involving consenting adults will be repealed, in order that real crimes with genuine victims like rape, robbery, murder and theft can be vigorously pursued and the rights of these victims enforced and upheld. All people currently incarcerated for victimless 'crimes' will be immediately released. Life sentences for real crimes will mean life. The NZ Bill of Rights will be amended to uphold your right to self-defence and the right to possess the means of self-defence.

Justice

The one proper function of government is to protect your rights. To that end, a minimal government will maintain a fair and open justice system based on the rule of law.

The principles that must underpin a working justice system are reason and truth. Over centuries, systems have developed that provide a fair and open criminal justice system.

Presumption of innocence
Presumption of innocence is the foundation stone of a justice system that values truth. It is up to the accuser to prove his charge against you. Laws that assume your guilt in advance such as those that empower organisations like the Inland Revenue to harass people to the grave, or that allow the confiscation of your assets unless you can prove your own innocence, are unjust and must be purged from the books immediately.

Trial by jury
The jury system provides two valuables checks to the justice system. It ensures that prosecutors prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, and it gives ordinary people the chance to refuse to convict under unjust laws. Recent suggestions to allow majority instead of unanimous verdicts undermine this valuable protection.

No double jeopardy
A defendant should not be harassed by having to defend the same charge multiple times. If a defendant is acquitted that is the end of the story. Prosecutors must get their case right the first time. Recent attempts by Tony Ryall and Phil Goff to allow exemptions to this rule undermine an important pillar of the justice system.

No detention without trial
It is unjust to arrest someone and hold him without charge or to detain him without trial. An arrestee must be charged and tried, or released. Anything else is kidnapping. The two-year detention of Ahmed Zaoui without charge or trial shows that the basic rules of civil society are of no concern to the current government.

Protection of contracts
A proper government protects and defends contracts and agreements that you choose to make, and provides speedy, swift and inexpensive resolution should disagreements or dishonesty arise.

Property rights
In all circumstances, a libertarian government respects and protects your property rights. We will have no truck with attempts to remove or abuse your property rights, whether by heritage organisations or utility companies, or by governments central or local.

One law for all
Libertarian governments offer special treatment to no-one. No-one should be above the law: not bureaucrats nor politicians, nor those of particular religions or skin colour. Those responsible for the Cave Creek disaster will be brought to justice.

Libertarianz will vigorously protect these vital institutions.

Novel Solutions

Justice should be inexpensive, and accessible. In a free and creative society, it is likely that the market will also come up with ways to avoid the expense and hassle of litigation. For many non-criminal cases – disputes between neighbours, or business contract disputes, for example – people may choose private arbitration or mediation companies rather than go through the courts. Of course, if these methods fail, the public courts will have the final word. In a vibrant, innovative environment, expect novel methods of dispute resolution to appear and to remove much of the burden from the court system.

Maori Party

website

No specific Justice or Law and Order Policy could be located on the website at time of writing