The Labour’s Minister of Immigration, Workplace Relations and Safety and Auckland, Hon. Michael Wood says his government is doing everything required to contain the crime in New Zealand and any chest thumping by opposition leaders to stop crime will not change a single thing. The Minister said the rampant crime and the involvement of young children in it is more of a social issue than of law and order. Crime is the byproduct of a certain vulnerable and broken families in our society, whose children are involved in it and this government is already addressing to this. In an exclusive interview with The Indian News, the Minister spoke about range of topics and showed exuberance on the possible come back of his government after the elections on 2nd October.

He said his government has taken all the necessary measure to keep a check on the retail crimes including increasing police by a record high number of 1800, but some broken families in our society with drug abuse and mental health issues are contributing to aggravate these crimes. He said new measures taken by the government like involving families of the offenders and holding them accountable for the acts of their children, are starting to show results and re offending by youth is now reducing. He said government is hitting hard on gangs by bringing a new legislation and giving more power to police and hitting them where it hurts them the most by confiscating their prize possessions like bikes, money, and bling. Minister said the problem of gangs and youth crimes has been in New Zealand for a long time and it’s not happened recently. He said no government can claim to have checked it one hundred percent.

About his new portfolio of Minister of Auckland, Michael Wood said it’s a new old portfolio which was there at the time when Helen Clark was the Prime Minister. The main role of his ministry is to ensure the smooth functioning of the day to day working in the biggest city in coordination with the Auckland Council. He said there is no big budget or laws or levers to pull and his role is to ensure that everyone is working in the same direction for the betterment of the city. On being asked about the plans of general amnesty scheme by the government for the overstayers in the country he said its certainly on the cards though he can’t give a specific time frame for it, but he hoped it should happen before the elections in October. About the new migrant workers exploitation, Minister was critical of some unscrupulous employers who are still abusing the new migrant employees and not fulfilling their accreditation conditions, but he said his government has a zero-tolerance policy for such elements. Government is keeping an eye over such dodgy employers and if they repeatedly fail to comply with their accreditation conditions, their accreditation licence will be cancelled. He said this kind of small number of rogue elements exist in every society and they need to be dealt with firmly as per the laws.

The Minster defended his government on fiscal management, inflation and employment and claimed New Zealand economy is financially stable despite of a global gloomy scenario. Michael Wood said New Zealand is a very attractive place to live despite a large number of people making a move to across the ditch for better life. He insisted that that the net migration is still all time high and people from across the globe find New Zealand a very attractive place to call it home. Minister said he is very positive about his government making a comeback after the elections despite the surveys painting a different picture otherwise. Michael Wood felt sorry on being slow in responding to his Parliamentary office emails to disclose his shares in Auckland airport and admitted it was a terrible mistake on his part which is now corrected. This slackness cost Michael Wood a lot of controversy on his personal front and cost him to stand down as Transport Minister. -Yugal Parashar