“Fending off suggestions she is ‘pro-criminal’ this morning, the Prime Minister revealed her ignorance of the law and accidentally drew attention to the fact her Government has reduced penalties for ram raid-type offences”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Speaking to Breakfast, Jacinda Ardern said: "The accusation that we are pro-criminal, I push back on - you will not find a decrease in any of the penalties in any of the criminal areas that we've been discussing today - we have not lessened."

1 News went on to say: "Ardern said that several Government-introduced measures designed to stop crimes like ram-raids have been working, and the Government is committed to continued action on burglaries and aggravated robberies."

“Ardern is wrong. Aggravated robbery was a qualifying three strike offence and Labour repealed that law.

“If a ram raider was convicted of aggravated robbery on their second strike, they would have had to serve the full sentence without parole.

“If a ram raider was convicted of aggravated robbery on their third strike, the court was required to impose the maximum penalty without parole, unless the court considered it would have been manifestly unjust to do so.

“To say that the Government has not reduced the penalties for offending relating to ram raids is false. The PM needs to get her facts right.

“ACT will reintroduce the Three Strikes law to reflect the seriousness of the damage violent criminals do in our communities.

“We have called on the Government to get tough, and smart on the epidemic of retail crime that followed the epidemic of COVID-19. We have proposed idea after idea to try and get on top of the ram raids and the robberies, but the Government has barely listened, if at all.

"We have challenged the Government to expedite its retail crime prevention fund, particularly after someone who sought and didn't get help from it was robbed. That fund has continued at a glacial pace and now needs to be sized up and expedited.

“Last week’s death should be a turning point where the Government finally takes retail crime as seriously as it deserves.”

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