A few weeks ago in the media the government was blowing its trumpet and shouting with glee that crime was on the decrease. Once again they have spoken too soon.

There have been several reports in the media that crime is not down rather the number of people reporting the crimes is down. And why is crime reporting on the decrease you may wonder, the answer is really quite simple. It is because the police are not dealing with crimes instead people are being turned away with the police officers sending letters to the victims of criminal activity saying, "their cases will not be investigated because they are not considered high priority. The practice has been highlighted in the case of a South Auckland dairy owner who supplied police with video footage of a man stealing from his shop. He was told by letter six days later that no attempt would be made to catch the thief." (NZ Herald www.nzherald.co.nz).

I then decided to do some investigating of my own and found on the governments statistics website crime figures from 1994 - 2000 and they are http://www.stats.govt.nz/analytical-report...ffence-rate.htm What is shown from this graph is that crime is actually on an upward trend which defies the government's claims.

I looked further to see in which areas crimes were being committed in and crime has increased in robbery, grevious assaults, intimidation & threats, other crime, sexual crimes have over all gone down but from the year 2000 they were back to an increase trend. Drug usuage is on the increase, so is disorder and family offences.

Arson has remained steady for severla years now but willful damage though is an over all decrease is back on the increase.

Theft is on the increase and receiving has remained steady without a change.

Trespass is on the increase.

So too are administrative crimes, being those against justice, immigration offences,.

So you may ask, what is the government going to be doing about this? if their current behaviour is anything to go by I should imagine that robberies will start to increase even more, after all the chances are the victim will receive a letter saying "its not important".

If you want to live in a society where it is safe and where you don't feel in danger then vote for National at this years election and make New Zealand safer.

For more information visit www.stats.govt.nz or www.national.org.nz

uhh do you work for national? :P

LOL

Whoops sorry Liz, fixed up the Election Poll, thought you might have made it Poll only by mistake.

Nah thats okay, I made it poll only but it should be returned to open topic because it is undemocratic for me to have my say and nobody else to have their say.

No I don't work for National but I am in the process of getting involved again. I was a member a few months ago but there was some confusion over which electorate I belong to so I have to sort that out.

Is there a National on campus?

Yup , Young Nationals I believe.

Thats good then. I feel like I am one of those people that people wouldn't want for ausa president because I would constantly use it as a propaganda tool.


now returning to the topic of crime, does anyone else think that the recent handling of crime is appalling?

Sorry Liz, but most of this stuff seems like a big plug for National and I'm not buying it.

Pfft National is just 'Labour 2' as far as I'm concerned, if I wanted to vote right wing I'd vote for Act. Voting sucks anyway, there's so little chance of my vote changing anything that it's not even worth me going to a voting booth, and I can't be fucked doing it for the symbolism.

Elections are unfairly biased against the lazy :(.

I want to vote, but the truth is there is no good party. The majority of them will just backtrack on what they say and not stick to any of their policies. Quite frankly it seems better to be apathetic.

i am yet undecided, ill see what party promises me decreases in my student loan
:P

haha

I like your way of thinking :P

Last i heard the progressive party had a policy similar to the one which i think should be implemented. Stay in NZ and work and your loan will get reduced each year you stay :clap:

National wil be the ones to reduce the student loan amounts.

I don't believe that the politicians will back track on their policies, at least not National. Recent media shows evidence of Labour doing so though.

But you don't know for sure, Liz. Though you continue to assert that you do.

No, I don't know for sure but you all don't either.

I do believe in National though as they have not provided any reason not to.

No, that's why I'm sceptical of all the political parties. Not solely National. Though most of them have a good record for not following through.

I'm sure all the parties do but that is because it is not that simple to just implement policies.

Regarding crime, there are two options in improve the crime and justice fields.

The first option is to increase taxes which people would not be happy about, when you combine all the taxes togethe we have a regressive tax rate, thus those earning low amounts of money end up paying a larger portion of their income in tax. Isn't this the governments opposite intent? That is the government wants to ensure there is a redistribution of income, which I don't support.

The other option is that money is taken from other areas, such as welfare to invest in crime solving but then you end up with a huge public uprising.

I guess I am in agreement with Brash and that is to raise taxes so that more money can be invested in crime prevention.

I thought National (and Brash) was in favour of lowering taxes?

Yes but if crime is such an issue then it is either take money from other areas or raise taxes and Brash has aknowledged this.

In my opinion they should take money from Judy Bailey's salary, say 800,000 dollars.

I am unsure how much police get paid but if it is $50,000 that is 16 more police officers. Sure it isn't much but it all adds up, just like the pennies.

maybe the police could have donation days where they have people in the street collecting for them too.

Kerre woodham has suggested that if crime is not dealt with people are going to take the law into their own hands, which would end up with guns like in the states.

What the hell is wrong with the government in not dealing with crime.

I remember when I was a child there were campaigns running against shop lifting.

I am not proud to admit it but I was a shoplifter when I was 8 years old and I was severely punished.

Why is it that 11 years ago these criminal actions were dealt with when I was 8, yet now crimes such as robbery are not dealt with?

What the hell has happened?

Brash is a Economist first, he won't lower anything. I'll never vote right wing parties as I don't trust them.

He will if he's an advocate for supply side economics.

EDIT: just now remembered that SSE is quite unpopular amongst economists atm, so he probably doesn't support it. If he does, well... oh noes!

And yet you trust left wing parties? They are all politicians at the end of the day.

just remember that it is a labour government that punishes those who work, they tax 78 cents in every dollar for those who get a student allowance and earn over $135 in employment.

Oh shit here we go again

I'm sorry but I feel really strongly about this.

I also have another person to add to the list of people who have not reported crimes. it is a sexual abuse crime.

All evidence plays against crime being on the decrease and there is a government surplus.

Instead of boasting about this surplus they should be using it so they can boast about having services that run to their full capacity.

hahahaha :lol: