SpeechCHRIS BAILLIE (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Four months ago I spoke to the House about crime being out of control and no one would believe it but in the last four months things have got worse—a lot worse. May: 50 ram raids; June: 37; July: 42. I hate to think what August is going to bring. But all of New Zealand knows how bad things have become in the last five years—except for the Labour Government. There's also smash and grabs assaults burglaries thefts of cars. You name it every type of offence is increasing. The rhetoric often spouted—that crime overall is on the downward trend—is a fallacy and everyone knows it.I got an email just yesterday from a woman whose car was stolen. There's CCTV footage and enough evidence to catch the offender but she was told just to go to her insurance company because police won't be following up. They simply don't have time to do their jobs while dealing with a 40 percent increase in mental health call outs and huge increases in domestic violence incidents.Just throwing money in their direction isn't the answer. All Government agencies need to be working efficiently so we can allow police to do their core work and we must fully support them. They haven't felt supported in five years. The soft-on-crime ideology is a failure. Eighteen months ago I attended a meeting of almost 40 business owners and dairy owners in Auckland. They were crying out for help then and told us that the Government just weren't listening. Despite being invited the absence of Labour the Greens and the Māori Party showed their priorities. Bollards would not be necessary now if action was taken earlier.Unlike the current Government ACT does put the victims of crime first and last week we released our law and order policy which addresses the causes of crime offers alternatives and most importantly looks after the victims—and I'd urge Labour to look at it. They liked our last one so much they stole a policy from it but we don't mind and I'm really pleased for New Zealand that Labour now agree that we should take the politics out of policing and police numbers should increase with population. It's a great idea.Here are just a couple of other policies I'd urge them to adopt as well. We need a review of the electronic bail rules. Using electronic bail as a means to reduce prison population is not only naive but dangerous. There are 6000 offenders on ankle bracelets. Tampering with these bracelets has gone up from one per month in 2017 to 47 per month in 2021. There's been a 75 percent increase in child sex offenders on electronic monitoring. Fifty-three of these offenders have tampered with their bracelet. These are people ACT doesn't want on our streets. Labour is letting them out.ACT will introduce infringement notices to young shoplifters and make them physically work to compensate for their offence so that the consequences of a criminal action are felt immediately. Failure to pay will result in a youth aid referral and Oranga Tamariki involvement. This isn't new. New Zealand has a world-class youth aid system but they need to be resourced and staffed appropriately to make it work. Many times I had young offenders cleaning police cars on a Saturday morning. Done properly it works. Ninety-five percent of young people who enter the justice system for minor offences are not seen there again and that's a great statistic. But they have to have had a consequence. Making excuses for their behaviour doesn't work. Young people want boundaries. I had a poster on my classroom wall for years which read You are responsible for your actions no matter how you feel."Here's another policy that works for Labour to think about: ACT will bring back three-strikes for serious violent offences. There are 13000 offenders on the first strike; just over 600 offenders on the second strike; and 24 of the worst violent and sexual offenders in New Zealand serving their third-strike sentence. The fact that Labour doesn't understand how these numbers show that it actually works is quite bizarre. Every police officer I speak to wants three-strikes legislation. But we'd go further and bring in three strikes for burglary. To be a burglar you've lost all empathy for your victims and it must be treated more seriously. Most burglars are caught every 15 to 20 burglaries they commit. Get caught a third time you serve the full sentence. That must be reassuring for the 289000 victims of burglaries last year.I'll leave Labour with one more policy to think about: the Crown will pay the victims financial reparation and the IRD will be tasked to get it off the offenders. There is $114 million is owed to victims some getting paid 65c a week back but all too often the victims are getting nothing. It's time we got serious about looking after victims and stopped pandering to the offenders. We think these policies are a great start."