Inside the government’s beleaguered bid to reduce violent crime
Behind the bold claims and big promises of the government’s 'tough on crime' stance.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Wednesday, September 18.
In today’s edition: The healthcare system is “failing” our young people, a chilly morning brings warnings of another electricity shortfall, and why Wellington’s mayor says she’s “feeling the crunch”. But first, a peek behind the bold claims of the government’s “tough on crime” position.
Another last minute addition to gangs bill
Nearly every member of the Comanchero motorcyle gang in New Zealand is facing criminal charges, police confirmed yesterday, after a three-year investigation. As RNZ reported, the police commissioner Andrew Coster said that 137 charges have been laid after a series of arrests in Christchurch last month.
The details were released in the same week the government hopes to pass its anti-gangs legislation. The Herald’s Claire Trevett reported the bill will go through its final reading tomorrow, bringing with it a second last minute amendment. Along with the controversial move to give police search powers for gang insignia in homes, the bill will now also prevent gang members from displaying patches in their car windows.
Cutting through the spin
It’s been a particularly crime-focussed week for the government, and it’s only Wednesday. Over the weekend, the prime minister was in Auckland touting a reduction in crime in the Auckland CBD. Then, on Monday, he fronted a press conference where he revealed that figures actually showed national violent crime numbers were up. The PM, joined by justice minister Paul Goldsmith, also promised new tools to combat crime, which included pinching sentencing provisions put forward by the last Labour government such as targeting adults that encourage children to commit crimes.
Throughout the crime debate – which received a renewed focus during the election campaign – there have been a lot of numbers thrown about. It’s easy to get lost in them, even swept up by them.
But beneath the headline figures and the political rhetoric lies a more interesting story, as The Spinoff’s Alice Neville delves into in an incredibly in-depth, exclusive report today. I asked Alice why she felt compelled to wade through dozens of documents, press releases, speeches and briefings.
What first piqued my interest was the language being used around the government’s law and order policies – the whole “there’s a new sheriff in town” kind of thing – combined with the liberal mentions of very specific stats with no source referenced.
‘Spiralled out of control’, or ‘no significant difference’?
We touched on this earlier in the week, but Alice’s report goes deep into the statistics. Official data from the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS), a Ministry of Justice initiative that asks people about their experiences of crime in the previous 12 months, has shown “no significant difference” in violent crime since the survey began in 2018 – until the latest data that revealed an increase of 30,000 people experiencing violent crime in the 2023 cycle.
National, both in opposition and government, has routinely derided Labour for letting crime get out of hand while in office. As Alice notes, despite the victim survey – the government’s own metric for monitoring its violent crime target – showing “no significant difference” until now, there have been regular references in parliament to a rise in violent crime described variously as “alarming”, “massive” or “huge”.
Here’s Alice:
But it’s not all metaphor and synonyms for “big”. There’s a favoured data point too: the claim that violent crime has gone up by 33%. This stat, of course, isn’t from the metric the government is using to measure progress towards its violent crime target, because until Monday, the NZCVS hadn’t shown any significant increase in violent crime. The 33% figure comes from the police victimisations dataset “RCVS” (recorded crime victims statistics), which records all instances of reported crime (even if police take no further action) for which there is a direct victim.
Correspondence released to The Spinoff under the OIA suggests that in the context of the reducing violent crime target, advisers have repeatedly pointed Paul Goldsmith towards the NZCVS figures.
Frontline under pressure?
Among the hundreds of pages of (largely heavily redacted) documents released to The Spinoff was another interesting revelation.
Alice writes:
Despite the government’s repeated assurances that its money-saving measures won’t impact frontline services, ministers have been warned that “back-office” cost-cutting is not only putting the delivery of the reduced violent crime target at risk, it is expected to “place further pressure on frontline staff”.
In about six weeks’ time, the team that sounded these warning bells – the Justice Sector Directorate that had been tasked with creating a comprehensive plan for how to deliver the reduced violent crime target – will cease to exist. A proposal to merge it with Corrections’ High Impact Innovation Programme, as part of a wider “organisational realignment” at the justice ministry, was confirmed in September.
Alice’s report is far more comprehensive than what I’ve shared above – set aside a few minutes this morning and give it a read.
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Healthcare system ‘failing’ children
A new health report has identified five areas of serious concern among our children, noting "unacceptably high" hospital admissions for respiratory conditions, rheumatic fever and heart disease, skin infections, dental disease, and mental health. As Aui'a Vaimaila Leatinu'u of the Pacific Media Network reported, the Cure Kids State of Child Health Report also found Pasifika children were 115 times more likely to be hospitalised with acute rheumatic fever, while Māori children were 46 times more likely.
Cure Kids chair of child health research, Stuart Dalziel, told media before the launch of the report yesterday morning that the healthcare system was “failing” young people, and that immunising every child under five years old against winter illnesses was crucial.
The report’s launch came just days after the government directed the public service to focus solely on “need” and not race, as RNZ’s Jo Moir reported. In comments to The Bulletin, Cure Kids’ Anneka Anderson, an expert in the field of rheumatic heart disease, said she didn’t agree with the new directive. “We’ve got inequities, largely due to racism and colonisation, and actually when you look at those inequities they are ethnicity based and so that’s where we need to target it,” she said.
“Rheumatic fever is really only for Māori and Pasifika, so if you take Māori and Pasifika out of the equation, we’re never going to address it.”
‘Tight’ electricity generation levels on a chilly morning
After a few days of Spring, it feels like Winter has returned to much of the country. This morning, national grid operator Transpower is warning of “tight” electricity generation between now and 8.30am after a fault at a North Island gas field, reports RNZ’s Adam Burns.
At this point, it’s not expected to have “any impact on consumers’ electricity supply”, said Transpower. But local power generators have been urged to make more power available across the grid in case the “situation deteriorates… if it is colder than forecast or wind generation drops below forecast during peaks”.
Watch: The final episode of Takeout Kids
In the fifth and final episode of Takeout Kids we meet Kyla, who mimics her mum’s beauty routine with her sister Kylee – they’re even allowed to dip into their mum’s perfume. At the nail salon where Mum works, she makes sure Kyla stays on top of her Vietnamese homework, but there’s more pressing issues in the playground for Kyla and her friends: love and crushes.
Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Click and Collect
The new health commissioner who was parachuted in to replace the ousted board of Te Whatu Ora only works three days a week to earn his $320,000 a year fee.
Off the back of yesterday’s Bulletin on buy now, pay later schemes, I thought I’d direct you to an exchange in the house yesterday between Labour’s Arena Williams and commerce minister Andrew Bayly. “These are good provisions and they will protect consumers,” Bayly said.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau says she’s “feeling the crunch” and recently sold her car to help pay the bills. Let me know what you make of this in the comments.
The Spinoff’s Gabi Lardies explains the details of a new test for workers who want to challenge their status as contractors. But, as The Post reported, Labour remains open to reversing the law change if reelected.
The government is still considering closing a longstanding loophole that allows some businesses to legitimately pay no companies tax by declaring themselves charities. (NZ Herald Premium)
The days of free street parking in Auckland’s suburbs could be coming to an end.
A Dunedin GP clinic is opening a low cost branch allowing people to see a doctor for $15.
Hayden Donnell makes the case for saying “screw it” and building Wayne Brown's weird Auckland Harbour bridge. Madeleine Holden considers the many complex truths within the paedophilia study saga. For The Cost of Being, a public servant with a six-month-old baby (and a coffee indulgence) breaks down her costs.
That’s it for this morning, thanks for reading. I’ll catch you back tomorrow.
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