Hon Paul Goldsmith
Minister of Justice
Hon Mark Mitchell
Minister of Police

New data shows Kiwis are becoming safer with the Government tracking ahead of its violent crime reduction target, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell say.

“The Government announced nine targets in March last year, which included ensuring there are 20,000 fewer victims of serious violent crime by 2029, equating to 165,000 victims,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“The latest New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey shows that for the year to February, there were 157,000 victims of violent crime. This is 28,000 fewer victims than the baseline set in October 2023.

“This is very encouraging and shows our work to restore law and order is paying off.

“We’ve provided police and the courts with extra tools to go after gangs, brought back a revised three strikes sentencing regime, restored real consequences for crime by limiting sentence discounts, and scrapped Section 27 reports.”

Police Minister Mark Mitchell says we know there is a lot more work to do, but these results are a good early sign we are heading in the right direction.

“I want to acknowledge and thank our Police Commissioner and Corrections Chief Executive, our entire Police and Corrections teams both sworn and non-sworn who are working hard with their Justice sector colleagues to implement the Government’s policies and direction on public safety. I am very proud of the work they are doing every day to make our country safer.

“There were 12,000 fewer victims in Auckland and 5,000 fewer in Canterbury, which is credit to them all,” Mr Mitchell says.

“The latest quarterly results for all Government targets will not be released until early June. However, given the significance of these results we are releasing them early, as we believe they are robust and in the public interest,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“We do, however, expect the data to remain volatile, and there’s still more work to do to continue driving these numbers down.

“It’s important to remember this survey covers a 24-month period, so we will continue to see the results of Labour’s soft on crime approach filter through at points.”

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