Don Brash will abolish parole for career crims

National Party Leader Don Brash has signalled the next National Government will launch an all-out assault on crime, pledging to "abolish parole as we know it", boost police resources and target organised crime.

The policy was outlined in a hard-hitting Law and Order address to the Sensible Sentencing Trust in Auckland today.

"Law abiding people have a right to expect that they will be kept safe from those who prey on them, their families, and the wider community. As a society, we seem to have lost the confidence to defend ourselves, to stand up and defend our core values.

"The difference between the sentences handed out by judges and the sentences actually served would be considered farcical if it were not such a human tragedy.

"Today I am doing something which does not come naturally for me: I am advocating the spending of more taxpayers' money. There is no free or even cheap way of dealing with our crime problem.

"The next National Government will focus on early intervention for at-risk youth. It will give the police additional tools, including greater use of DNA testing and an amendment to the Proceeds of Crime Act to target gangs involved in organised crime.

"I believe we need to go back to basics and ask ourselves when we are trying to rehabilitate, when we are trying to punish, and when we are simply trying to incarcerate an individual to protect the rest of society."

Initiatives flagged by Dr Brash today include:

* Recording the DNA of all convicted criminals.

* Providing additional resources to combat the methamphetamine epidemic and strengthen criminal non-association laws.

* Amending the Proceeds of Crime Act to target the economic base of organised crime.

* Recruiting and resourcing the additional police officers necessary to do the job.

* Greater use of preventive detention for violent repeat offenders.

* Abolishing parole for all violent and previously imprisoned offenders.

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