7. Question No. 7—JusticeHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of JusticeQuestion No. 7—Justice7. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Justice: Does she believe her Government has the right policies in justice; if so why?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): Yes. As I just addressed in the previous statement to the House we've been working on a range of measures to address a recent spike in youth offending. In addition we are tackling organised crime through measures including the new Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Act which was recently used in the events in Ōpōtiki to search vehicles seize weapons and make arrests of gang members. Further we have prioritised victims. Since 2017 this Government has doubled funding for victim support and tripled support for the Victims Assistance Scheme. We are improving legal protections—for example for victims of sexual and serious violence through new legislation to give sexual assault victims more control in court processes particularly around name suppression. Our focus is a justice system where victims feel safe heard and empowered.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Will she concede now that her Government's priority to reduce the prison population by 30 percent regardless of what's happening on the ground has been misguided and has contributed to the explosion in crime that the Prime Minister referred to yesterday?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: No. Public safety has always been a top priority for our Government. Where people commit serious crimes they will do that time. I note that violent criminals are still being imprisoned; that hasn't changed. The reduced prison population hasn't led to crime sprees or an overwhelming majority of reduction for people in jail for non-violent crimes and the stats back it up. We have safely reduced the prison population by 21 percent and we're doing this by helping non-violent eligible prisoners with the bail process.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Was she consulted on the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday that the Government will prioritise creating a new offence for those who use young people to commit a crime punishable with prison for up to 10 years?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: Yes that was a Cabinet decision.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why would the public have confidence in the Government's new enthusiasm for cracking down on crime is genuine when it has emerged just three months before an election?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: I refute the proposition in that question. This Government has been focused on law and order and making sure that New Zealanders are kept safe. We've increased police numbers. We've introduced a series of legislative reforms including particularly CAIL. CAIL is as the member will be well aware the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Act. This is a piece of legislation that has been seen to be critically important for the police and indeed it was something that they have been relying on in a range of different circumstances. Our job as governors is to continue to build on that programme and the announcements that we made yesterday and indeed today continue to address the issues in law and order that we continue to see.Hon Paul Goldsmith: How does the Government determine its priorities in justice when the Prime Minister says there's been an explosion in crime but the Deputy Prime Minister says of crime in Auckland Oh I wouldn't say it's bad at all."? How can a Government determine priorities when there's no agreement on the scale of the problem that it's trying to fix?Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: Oh there's a very clear agreement. Cabinet has made a raft of decisions in the law and order space and will continue to do so."