The Prime Minister says the Government has made “tremendous progress” on law and order, in the wake of new poll results on the coalition’s policies, but says there is still more work to be done.
A new 1News Verian poll released yesterday revealed that 26% of Kiwis feel more safe under the coalition’s law and order policies, while 56% reported no change in their sense of security and 13% reported feeling less safe under the Government’s policies.
People were asked: “Do you feel more or less safe as a result of the Government’s law and order policies, or do they make no difference?”
Responding to the same question in June, less than one in five people polled (19%) felt more safe, while 58% said the policies made no difference to their feeling of safety and 18% reported feeling less safe under the Government’s policies.
On Breakfast this morning, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: “If you look at your numbers on this quarter versus last quarter, you’ll see that there was actually 7% more people feeling safer [and] people feeling less safe was down five points.
“We’ve only just introduced all our gang laws so, it’s consistent with what we’re seeing.”
“We’ve seen a 60% reduction in ram raids, we’ve got a 30% increase in cops out on the beat, we’ve got a 3% decline in total victimisations, which is all good stuff. If you consider where we were heading which was a 33% increase in violent crime, a doubling of retail crime, we’ve made tremendous progress in 12 months and so it’s really encouraging.
“We want to continue to make sure that Kiwis do feel safer in their businesses, their homes and their communities,” he added.
National leader Luxon said crime got worse “each and every day” under Labour.
“Within a 12-month period under a new government, you’ve seen that stop, and you’ve actually seen that trend down.
“I acknowledge, a lot more to do, but I think we should be celebrating some progress here,” he said.
“Let’s celebrate the fact that we no longer have increasing crime, we’ve got crime trending down – that’s a fantastic thing, it’s a good achievement within 12 months.
“We know there’s more to do, but we’re onto it.”
Responding to the poll, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said: “New Zealanders generally don’t feel safer.
“That could be because there are fewer police officers and now more gang members.”
