The Government is bringing back a law that has little evidential backing just to look tough, Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said.

“This is political posturing of the worst kind. Three strikes did not reduce serious offending, as ACT and National claimed it would,” Duncan Webb said.

“In fact there was almost no evidence to show it deters offending, and instead it resulted in severe distortions in sentencing third strike offenders.

“One example provided at the time the legislation was repealed was a person who was jailed for 10 years where the sentencing judge said they would ordinarily have imposed 18 months in prison for that kind of offending.

“Another saw a person get a sentence of seven years in prison for patting a prison guard’s bottom. That was unjust and can still occur under this new proposal.

“Repeated offending is already an aggravating factor. Judges can already impose sentences of this length, where appropriate. All this law does is continue the Government’s attack on the judiciary by removing sentencing discretion from the courts.

“Judges should be left to make decisions that take into account all of the circumstances of the offending, the offender and the impact on the victim.

“Wasting money on compulsory sentences that don’t reduce crime is political posturing, doesn’t protect victims and is a significant cost to the country’s prison system. The criminal justice system needs to protect victims by reducing reoffending and getting tough on the drivers of crime.

“This legislation has not even been to Cabinet yet – so it is an announcement about an announcement in an attempt to look tough, when the evidence all shows this doesn’t work,” Duncan Webb said.

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