“The Labour Government has turned its back on victims of serious crime as it prepares to scrap ACT’s Three Strikes Legislation,” says ACT’s Justice spokesperson Nicole McKee....
“The Labour Government has turned its back on victims of serious crime as it prepares to scrap ACT’s Three Strikes Legislation,” says ACT’s Justice spokesperson Nicole McKee.
“The Justice Select Committee will today consider submissions on repealing the Three Strikes legislation. This will include submissions from the Sensible Sentencing Trust and the Dairy and Business Owners group.
“In a document released under the Official Information Act, officials say they haven’t bothered to contact the victims of Three Strikes offences because the law won’t be retrospective, Faafoi subsequently wrote to the select committee asking it to consider retrospectivity.
“That means victims of violent crimes and sexual assaults at the hands of repeat offenders have been completely left in the dark by the so-called Government of kindness.
“Three Strikes was an ACT idea introduced in 2010 to send a signal to violent offenders that New Zealanders won’t tolerate repeated violent and sexual offending.
“The average Three Strikes offender has 75 convictions.
“Just 21 people have been sentenced to a Third Strike. The total number of people sentenced to a first, second or third strike account for just one percent of the people sentenced in our courts. This is the worst of the worst. These offenders leave behind a long list of victims, some who will never fully recover from the trauma.
“A petition started by the ACT Party to keep the law has had almost 10,000 signatures.
“Justice Minister Kris Faafoi should apologise to victims who feel blindsided by his decision to ask the Select Committee to consider retrospectivity.
“ACT will continue to fight against repealing the law.”
Notes to editors: The briefing from Ministry of Justice to the Minister can be found here.