Wayne Mapp National Justice Spokesperson

5 July 2002

Labour's justice policy a dismal failure

Labour's justice policy is no different that its lukewarm offerings of 1999, says National's Justice spokesperson, Wayne Mapp.

"Its so-called centrepiece legislation, the Sentencing Act 2002, has been slammed up and down the country. This isn't surprising when 92% of New Zealanders called for tougher sentences, and instead got lighter sentences.

"Labour's law means that violent offenders are now able to be released after serving one third of their sentence. This is half the time of the previous law.

"Labour's backdown yesterday, saying it could make further changes to the law to ensure that it properly responds to the 1999 referendum, proves they know it's failed.

"The other lukewarm offerings in its policy around victims rights, youth offending and law reform measures, were all served up in 1999.

"National is committed to delivering tough sentencing laws which guarantee life will mean life for the worst murderers, a minimum of 15 years to be served for all other murderers and an absolute minimum non-parole period of two thirds of the sentence for all violent offenders. There will be no right to automatic parole," says Dr Mapp.

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