Key’s boasts now haunt him and innocent kiwis
new-zealand-labour-party
Thu Apr 01 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Key’s boasts now haunt him and innocent kiwis
Thursday, 1 April 2010, 11:30 am
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
Clayton Cosgrove
Law and Order Spokesperson
MP for Waimakariri
1 April 2010 Media Statement
Key’s boasts on law and order now haunt him and innocent Kiwis
Boasts made in 2008 by Prime Minister John Key that National’s law and order policies would make the streets safer for New Zealanders are now coming home to haunt him, says Labour law and order spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.
“A staggering increase of 25 percent in the number of murders and 9.2 percent in violent crime in 2009, National’s first full year in office, is incredibly embarrassing for John Key and frightening for Kiwis who put their faith in him,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
“John Key campaigned up and down the country, using shonky statistics to back his claims that violent crime had soared under Labour, and promising a 10-point action plan to tackle violent crime.
“So what’s happened to his plan? An increase of 9.2 percent in violent crime, or 5528 more recorded cases, proves it isn’t working,” Clayton Cosgrove said. “No amount of foot stamping by Police Minister Judith Collins can conceal that fact.
“John Key’s Government pleads that there hasn’t been time for its law and order measures to start having an impact. New Zealanders will see that for the excuse it is,” Clayton Cosgrove said.
“The John Key Government has now become the government of excuses on law and order issues, although John Key said before the election: ‘Not on my watch’ (May 2007). Well, things have got much worse on his watch, and the excuses are suddenly being trotted out.
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“John Key told a Christchurch audience before the election that the Mayor had said he wouldn’t recommend walking city streets after midnight. Well, what does John Key say to Christchurch people now that recorded violence has increased 6 percent in the Canterbury district under National’s watch?
Clayton Cosgrove said the real tragedy in terms of violent crime is that the blowout during National’s first year in office follows years of low or even negative growth in overall crime statistics. “Labour’s law and order programme, particularly the funding of 1250 more police over its final three years in office, was having a real impact on crime statistics. National has failed to keep that momentum going.”
ENDS
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