Winston is all bluster over looting

Winston Peters’ call for ‘new laws’ on looting lacks credibility, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“It’s a bit rich for Winston to campaign against crime when he’s considering going into coalition with Labour-Greens, who fundamentally disagree with getting tough on criminals.

“ACT actually has a track record of strengthening penalties for crime. We convinced the Government to pass Three Strikes for Violent Crime back in 2010 which is already working to reduce reoffending.

“In terms of looting, it’s a bit bureaucratic to create undefined ‘new laws’ from scratch when we could just fix the existing ones. ACT has actual ideas for doing that.

“For example, today we drafted a bill to amend section 9 of the Sentencing Act to turn exploitation of a disaster scenario into an aggravating factor for sentencing. I’ll be contacting other parties to discuss this possibility.

“ACT has also proposed Three Strikes for Burglary. Most burglars are recidivists, and our proposal would ensure a burglar or looter on their third conviction would actually serve three years in jail.

“After the next election, National will need a strong ACT coalition partner to give them some spine and policy credentials on crime.”

ENDS

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