NZ near top of crime survey

Simon Power MP National Party Justice & Corrections Spokesman

19 March 2008

NZ near top of crime survey

An international survey of crime confirms that New Zealand still has a huge amount of work to do in law and order, says National's Justice & Corrections spokesman, Simon Power.

"It's disturbing that after nine years of a Labour Government promising all sorts of things, we still compare very poorly with similar countries."

He is commenting on the report of the International Crime Victims Survey, which compares rates of crime, perception of crime, and attitudes towards the criminal justice system in 30 countries from 2004/05.

It reveals that New Zealand was the third-highest of 30 countries for conventional crime rates. It was the highest for thefts from cars, second highest for burglary, 5th for assaults and threats, 10th for robbery, and 11th for theft of personal property and for sexual assaults against women.

"Labour cannot use their usual excuse that problems in New Zealand simply reflect international trends.

"Being the third-worst for the prevalence of all the most common crime is bad enough, but being the fifth worst for assaults and threats and 11th for sexual assaults on women is very concerning.

"Under a Labour Government, violent crime has risen 32%, with robberies up 55%, grievous assaults up 70%, serious assaults up 36%, and sex crimes up 15%.

"Labour has failed to deal to crimes against people, with these figures showing that crime is now much nastier.

"It's great to see that in 2004/05, New Zealand ranked among the highest for public satisfaction with police, reporting rates of victims, and satisfaction of victims with how police dealt with reported crime, and that support for victims was the highest of the 30 countries.

"But this is all after the crime has been committed. After nine years of Labour are Kiwis any safer? These figures show we are not."

ENDS