Lole-Taylor Asenati: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLole-Taylor Asenati: General Debate[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11865. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR (NZ First):Honourable members today I want to talk about an issue of concern.Paul Foster-Bell: What’s that?Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR: That issue is crime Mr Foster-Bell. We are all very aware that some of our citizens fail to behave in accordance with the law. So New Zealand like every society has to live with a certain amount of illegal and dysfunctional behaviour. Human perfection is not likely to happen any time soon. Accordingly our society must be able to marshal such levers as will influence people to abide by the law. These points need to be made because right now in New Zealand it is plain that many of those who break the law in a serious way are getting an uncertain message about how unacceptable their behaviour is to law-abiding society.Let me mention a few recent examples. Darren MurphyFidow age 18 brutally attacked an 82-year-old woman. He was sentenced to only 11 months’ home detention. John Richard Cox received 6 months’ home detention and 150 hours’ community work for making incorrect tax claims for his clients without their knowledge which amounted to a fraud of well over $400000. Eru MichaelTimoti 27 a factory worker had sexwith an under-age girl for over a year knowing that it was illegal. He was sentenced to 200 hours’ community work and 18 months’ intensive supervision.It would be inappropriate for me to comment in detail on any specific criminal case but what is apparent is a clear pattern of extremely serious crime resulting in sentences that would strike most New Zealanders as lenient—as lenient. Justice must be done and it must be seen to be done. We place great trust in our judiciary—we do. Those appointed to the judiciary in New Zealand are people of the highest calibre—the highest calibre. But ultimately if people believe that sentences do not reflect the harm that individuals in society have suffered confidence in the whole judicial process will suffer.Has the Government directed judges to avoid prison sentences because of the cost and serious overcrowding? That is a good question for the Minister of Justice to answer. The public are rightly concerned about what appear to be lenient sentences and they are questioning the validity of our court system. The public can be forgiven for their scepticism. They can be forgiven. Is something going on here? What are we not being told? Is lenient sentencing a covert way of saving money? Is leniency an undeclared way of keeping prison populations down? Is it? What we do know is that the public take crime very very seriously. New Zealand First takes crime very very seriously. In relation to crime we must all stand together—we must.Earlier this week we watched in horror a chase on television. The chase started inŌpōtiki and went all the way up to North Auckland. That chase took over 3 hours and shut down the motorway for 14 hours.Hon John Banks: How many?Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR: 14 hours Mr Banks. Do you remember something now? New Zealand First wants to commend the New Zealand Police for its handling of the extremely dangerous situation. But it does raise yet more concerns—it does raise more concerns. Let me put it in plain language: it means that the Minister is asleep at the wheel—it does.Hon John Banks: Speak up.Le’aufa’amulia ASENATI LOLE-TAYLOR: I am speaking up for that as you can hear. You cannot even remember half of the story Mr Banks.It means our police force is under-resourced. It means our community safety is hugely compromised. It means the Minister and the Government are turning a blind eye to the huge number of unreported incidents and unrecorded crimes. There are just not enough police—there are just not enough police—to cope with the demand. The Government should stop boasting about the crime rate coming down because we have got prisons overflowing with prisoners. New Zealand still has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world. How can our prisons be overflowing if the crime rate is coming down? How can you expect the prisons—Mr SPEAKER: I apologise for interrupting the member. The member’s time has expired.