Law and order has been topped of mind for communities across New Zealand for several years and in particular for our Indian community, which was hit very hard by the ram raid scourge.
What all of New Zealand watched horrified was a slow-motion train wreck as the previous government took too long to support property owners in a meaningful way. There was a lot of talk but little action.
But rest assured that when it comes to the criminal gangs you will not see the same slackness from the coalition government.
For the past five years, the Labour government ran a soft approach that allowed gangs to be an attractive option for some young people. In that time, the gangs recruited more than 3000 members – a 51 per cent increase. There are now estimated to be 9000 of them.
Hardly surprising that over the same period, gang-related violence, public intimidation, and shootings rocketed, with violent crime up a totally unacceptable 33 per cent.
This calls for a forceful and timely response, and that’s what we’ve done.
We are right now drafting legislation to give police new tools to deal with gangs.
We are banning all gang insignia in public places and will create greater powers to stop gangs from gathering in groups and communicating.
Police will be also able to issue dispersal notices that will require gang members to immediately leave the area and not associate with one another for seven days. Also, the ccourts will be able to issue orders that will stop specified offenders from associating or communicating with one another for up to three years.
For too long, gangs have been allowed to endanger and intimidate law-abiding people, and these laws will support police to change that.
The government has also moved quickly on the time some people are spending on jobseeker benefits.
The Minister for Social Development and Employment has written to MSD to make it clear all obligations and sanctions are applied around these benefits.
The numbers are staggering since 2017 the number of people on jobseeker benefits has increased by around 70,000. Around 40,000 of them were on that benefit for more than a year.
Worse, work-ready job seekers are projected to spend an average of 13 years on a benefit, while teenagers who go onto welfare are forecast to be trapped there for an average of 24 years.
In 2017 some 60,588 sanctions were applied to beneficiaries who did not comply with their obligations, but that had nosedived to 25,329 by last year. While the number of people on benefits was increasing, the number of sanctions was decreasing.
None of this is acceptable and we are changing it.
Under this Government, if job seekers fail to attend job interviews, to complete their pre-employment tasks, or to take work that is available, there will be consequences.
And, from June, MSD will begin work check-ins for job seekers who have been on benefit six months or longer, particularly young people.
These will focus on those who are work-ready but do not have a Work and Income case manager and will make sure beneficiaries are taking steps to find employment and are receiving support to help them into employment.
Failure to attend will ultimately mean a financial sanction could be applied.
This government was elected to sort out these two issues, among a host of others, and I’m proud we’re delivering them in our first 100 days.

Hon Christopher Luxon
Prime Minister of New Zealand,
National Party MP for Botany, Auckland.