13 Comments
17 June 2008
VIDEO: Journal 39 on crime and National's plans
John talks about crime and particularly the tragic murders that have happened in the last two weeks. Young offenders are far too often at the centre of these tragedies and John talks about what National will do to deal with young offenders - and how National's programme will be different to the failed efforts of the Labour-led Government over the last nine years. "If I make just one promise to you, it will be this one," John says. "National's going to stop all the navel gazing ... we're going to get on and tackle some of the hard problems, deal with some urgency, do it with a plan and actually make a difference." He then acknowledges some of the commenters that have taken the time to share their thoughts about a vision for New Zealand, crime and the economy on his Facebook pages and his website, johnkey.co.nz.
Tweet#1 - Morie Yoshida 2008-06-18 09:51 - (Reply)
I have a written letter to you before about stop encouraging mum to work, because the goverment encourage them to work now, we can't stop. now local kindergarten has decrease the numbers of kids because of hours is not suitable for working mums, and there are too many preschool everywhere. the result of this, our future generation has become more restless, not loving, violent, no neighbourhood warm community, and more mental sickness. like Tokyo in Japan, becuase they've never have stable surrounding when they were baby, and always rushing stressful mother they have. there are reason for being a women and men, please bring back to basic fact.I think what Helen Clark was going to do was that the goverment tried to take over our parents right and power at the end, like communist country. I don't know how many my generation cares about our counrty now, so please don't decided things only around you. I really encourage you to connect with family first, you might know him already, but if you stand up with a men who has a totally clear vision of boned again Christienity, I am very sure you will see God's point of view and that will last forever and I am sure that you won everytime. Please bring back to N.Z. about 20yrs ago. it was much much better. I encourage what you are doing and support you. Yours faithfully. Morie Yoshida
#2 - Luke 2008-06-19 14:15 - (Reply)
Dear Prime Minister in waiting I am at a lost why honest questions by yourself and others in the house are almost always answered in a smart-aleck way by members from the Labour government and others like Winston Peters. It almost seems as if political point scoring is rated far more important than getting to the bottom of issues like economy, electoral finance act, tax payers moving to Oz, health and even the recent murders of human beings in Auckland. I cannot even think why these MP’s think the public likes to hear these incompetent, incomplete or in some cases worthless answers. I just wonder how this situation has become the norm at Q and A time. When will Michael Cullen get up and say, I was in charge, yes it was my fault and I knew about it but I didn’t govern the recourses given to me correctly. When will Helen Clarke say the economy, law and order is failing under my watch. It seems no government MP has the guts to answer the questions being put to them. Why can’t you insist answers during Q and A time must answer the question? Regards Luke of Churton Park
#3 - Michael 2008-06-20 12:17 - (Reply)
Dear John, I believe Labour Govt, Police Ministry and Police Commissioner are very slower process or idea a nothing their sleep a dream ! I knew this New Zealand is not safe from now. It's worse a murder numbers goes high than last year. However the robber would shot you again on anytime and anywhere. So I have good idea one thing ask you or people will feel agree or not. *Would the Taser gun allow on every protection business shop against crime ?* Because Taser gun will shot for crime body cannot move, If they wake up or move, You can shout "NOT MOVE, IF YOU MOVE, I shall shock you again" until police arrive and arrest them. That's simply. If real gun would shot you, Be carefully, when gun does any move away from point. You can be quick shot the taser gun like "professional cowboy gun sence". or another 2nd Taser somewhere hide. I disagree about "carry armed with police". I seen the numbers doesn't carry any weapon. I know most the gangs or robbery does it. I recommend a Six professional Police (Black uniform) have carry a armed each at North, South, East, West, and Centre. Less four Black Armed police on every small town (if any danger crime at town). It would faster and reduce time. We can't waiting "Special Armed Squad are too longer time in delay." Why Ambulance waiting until police call clear first. That wrong. A Emergency Communication Unit (ECU) did forget ask question *"Any Armed body crime still here with you or gone ?"* They will give answer, before ECU will call Ambulance will on way to save life. Very simply. That's why ECU are hopeless their guide !! I support to National look forward on next electorate... [sorry about bad gammer english ;-) ] Regards Michael
#4 - George Richards 2008-06-20 12:35 - (Reply)
John.. I follow everything your party brings up with interest and agree entirely with almost everything you have mentioned in your speeches. Crime is way out of control in this country.. we seem to be able to fool ourselves that we have a safe country but the murder rate alone is phenomenal for such a small country. TV3 is currently running a series on gangs... New Zealand's Mafia. An eye opener for those with their head in the sand. The government has a great propensity for feasibility studies and lots of other time and money wasting studies.. they quote these with ease.. yet the country slips further. Tax.. well we are starting to see a benefit from National's pressure here already. We still have a massive outflow of Kiwi's heading off shore.. the country certainly afford this. Above all that I see from National though is that New Zealand can have a future. The current Government seem to mainly be interested in the status quo.. more self interest than the nations interest. What gives me great heart is that I can see in you that you believe that New Zealand can have a good future and we don't have to accept the current slide to oblivion. All the individual policies are great and I support them entirely but the prospect of a good future for New Zealand and New Zealanders is the most attractive policy of all. Keep it up.
#5 - Lloyd S Derbyshire 2008-06-20 15:16 - (Reply)
Thanks JK. I like the sound of what you're saying. Getting tough on crime is well overdue. Parole is a joke. How many more murders, rapes & other general crime will be perpetrated while criminals are on parole? I have a simple question: Are rehabilitated criminals turned back into bad criminals because they've had to serve their full term? If you answer that keeping prisoners in jail once they've realised the error of their ways turns them back into criminals then guess what, that's exactly what happens when you let them out too. The only difference is that on the outside they can destroy the lives of innocent New Zealanders. Parole is merely complicating a simple problem and making jobs for a bunch of people who are, quite frankly, not adding value and who don't pay any price when they get it wrong. Do a crime, get caught, get sentenced, do time (pay the price of your actions), get out of jail, think about the penalties and discomfort of repeating that cycle while outside of prison and choose your lifestyle and friends to active your desired outcome. No need for parole because the message associated with parole is: "you just got away with murder, rape or whatever other crime without the legally agreed consequences" i.e you didn't have to pay the full price. You got a bargain . . . come back and shop with us soon.
#6 - Kevin Owen said:
2008-06-21 17:56 - (Reply)
Dear John, Like you said Labour has done nothing to solve the problem of crime, not because they haven't tried but becuase what they have been using to try and do the job was unworkable. The rehabilitation program below has 30yrs of workability behind it and could easily be implemented into our prisons at a speed that could turn the existing social tide and at a cost even the Indonesian Government can afford. CRIMINON INDONESIA• Recidivism Rate of Criminon graduates is 1.25%. Of 300 Criminon graduates released, only 4 returned to prison. The success rate is 98.5%. Indonesia has 365 prisons and after reviewing the success of the Criminon program in 6 of these, the Ministry of Justice has requested Criminon Indonesia’s cooperation in devising a roll out plan that will eventually bring the program to all of its prisons. http://www.rehabnz.co.nz/pages/criminon-indonesia.html KevinOwen@rehabnz.co.nz http://www.rehabnz.co.nz
#7 - Stef Railey 2008-06-23 10:01 - (Reply)
Helen Clark just does not listen to the public voice. She needs to take lessons on the difference between listening and hearing. She hears our concerns, but does not listen to them. Hopefully, a National Government will know the difference. Regarding law and order, I believe Texas has a system that works pretty well and have included a couple of links to sites expanding on this. I believe the Ave. Kiwi, wants tougher sentencing! The Ave. Kiwi does not want easy parole for violent offenders! The Ave. Kiwi does not want home detention for violent offenders! The Ave. Kiwi wants Victims to have more rights and more rehabilitation than offenders! (tdcj.state.tx.us/victim/victim-billrights.htm#top) The Ave. Kiwi wants offenders to pay for their crime. Myself, I would welcome a return to the death penalty for certain situations. (tarlton.law.utexas.edu/vlibrary/outlines/deathpenprint.html) Regarding reducing crime in our country, I would like to see a return to the situation whereby there is a carer in the home for children of school age, be it a mother, a father, a grand parent, or aunt or uncle. Crime has increased since women were recognised as equal. Unfortunately, the process of achieving this was not thought through and a double wage became necessary for families to survive and now, there is no family togetherness and crime is proliferating. Surely, rather than dole for some members of the community, there needs to be a scheme for total family support. Drug and alcohol testing would be a pre-requisite to receiving funding for it (as many positions are these days) and on-going basic training to ensure carers are capable. I am a mother of four and G/mother of five (soon to be 8). I could be in a position to be there for all this family when needed, (picking kids up from school & kindy, shopping, teaching my grandchildren skills handed down to me by my parents etc) so they can get on with providing for their families, except, I need to work to live too. It seems crazy that families in the community with a similar structure, who have members going off the rails, are not able to pull together to help one another. This seems a simple solution and better use of taxpayer dollars, which would go a long way towards fixing the problem, rather than the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, i.e. more police, more prisons. I feel that the benefit to the community from the effort provided by volunteers needs to be included in the solution to reduce crime. Providing a mechanism for the community to pull together and getting HARD on violent crime is the solution. Regards Stef Railey [Admin: contact details deleted from post]
#8 - Greg Jonkers 2008-06-23 12:04 - (Reply)
Hi John, I think that camps for offenders is a good thing, I have just joined the Territorials (army reserves), What I have discovered so far is that Soldiers in the army are treated worse than criminals who have committed crimes. If criminals who were fit to do so also had the hard disapline and the encouragement in a new division of the NewZealand Army combined with the security of a prison ground, I believe alot of those offenders would take pride in themselves. If I answer back to a superior, don't do exatly what I am told, I would be in a world of hurt. There are no luxuries and I get yelled at from dawn till dusk. Believe it or not, I love every minute of it, I am so pround to be part of this countries defence. These criminals could be treated with no rights as they should be, disaplined heavily, and if and when they are up for parole could have a future in a part of the army involved as a defence support group working as or alongside (depending on criminal history) The army.
#9 - David Sims 2008-06-25 11:15 - (Reply)
Hi John I was disappointed to read the other day that you were willing to keep the door open for Peters and the foreign affairs portfolio. Might I respectfully suggest that this is not a good look, for 2 reasons. Firstly, I would have thought that you had plenty of talented and respected people in you own party that could discharge these responsibilities without all the carry on re Peters. In fact I believe if you were to overlook one of your own members you run the risk of making a potential cabinet minister very disappoined. It's like picking a Wallaby to play on the wing for the All Blacks!! The second reason also has a strong case. By suggesting you are keeping the door open you are implying that Peters will win Tauranga - or get +5% of the vote. It would be a disaster if Peters did win Tauranga and you guys should be leaving no stone unturned to see that he does not succeed. Most of us have had a gutsful of him and it would be a real sad day for you and your party if you had to entertain some form of relationship with him. I personally believe that if you were to publicly state that the door was no longer open to Peters then you would achieve even more support. Make it clear there is not a place for him. Leave these thoughts with you. Finally, I am currently a director of Tennis New Zealand and I believe you would make a lot a friends in the tennis community if you came out and publicly acknowledged the achievement of Marina Erakovich overnight. As a sporting person you are no doubt aware she won her first round match at Wimbledon - no mean feat for a New Zealander.4
#10 - Jayne 2008-06-25 20:32 - (Reply)
Hi John, Your stated desire to review the need for government agencies and cut back some of the excess is long overdue. Does the current government believes that pandering to every bleeding heart liberal is needed? The volume of QWANGOs is increasing at such a rate its hard to keep up. Why do we need some agencies like the Ministry of Women's Affairs - we dont have a ministry of men's affairs (and at the rate that some NZ men have affairs it would be a very busy office!). I'm a woman but wouldnt have the first clue about what such a woman's affairs agency would deliver for me - I'm certainly not looking for anything from such an agency and wonder what they do all day. Knitting? God forbid. Does the public really have a clear idea just how many agencies there are and what they all do? I certainly dont. The overheads on creating all these new agencies to pander to one part of society or another is creating huge duplication of managment and governance overheads. Where is the accountability for these decisions. Government departments are also chokka full of contractors. They argue they cant get staff to accept the salaries being offered, so they have to pay for contractors. Maybe if the base salaries were raised slightly, people would accept the jobs and then that would be a huge saving on contract staff. Govt would save heaps if permanent govt staff were forbidden to "resign" and come back (like the next day in known cases) to work doing the same job but as a contractor. They are holding the agency, the govt and the tax payer to ransom - JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN. I've known a number do just that in the last 10 years. If what some of them say, then there are contractors who have contracted for the same govt agency since like forever. There should be a finite period for contracts, ie for a specified project - but if the project goes over say 2 years, then they should have to become permanent staff. Some contractors just think they can carry on working forever for the same agency. It would be interesting to know how many contractors have worked for the same agency in excess of 2 years - and to know exactly how long. There should be a maximum number of years (whether continuous or not) for a single agency. I was tempted to say here except in exceptional circumstances, but of course every example would be one of those, defeating the purpose. How do we as the public know that govt agencies arent gradually returning - or should that be making a speedy descent - back into gliding on days. They talk about making things transparent, but all the talk seems to do is create more work for more people so they can say they've done it. One really does have to ask what the additional benefits have actually been to each taxpayer, given the percentage increase in the public service. I see myself as just an ordinary new zealander, but if I've seen no real benefit to me, then who on earth is getting all the extra service, benefits, or what? Slash the extra agencies, cut the unnecessary staff, give us government agencies that deliver.
#11 - Laura McQuillan 2008-06-27 17:35 - (Reply)
What I really want to know is, will John Key cook me a steak?
#12 - Howie 2008-06-27 17:56 - (Reply)
Hi John, Just a quick comment about your clip there. I noticed you didn't mention race relations at all, wheras Don Brash frequently talked about it. What are your views? I think i speak for many Kiwis when I say we just want it all settled and finished for good, so we can stop focussing on the past and start on the present and the future. Cheers. Cheers.
#13 - Michael said:
2008-07-01 10:32 - (Reply)
Sir, I have written to the prime minister and to george hawkins aswell as to many other politicians. thee crime rate is high because prison isnt working there is no shock to the system of the first time and repeat offenders. i know this first hand as i have been to the governments holiday camps 4 of them to be exact and the only problem i faced were corrupt guards and ganglands. Sir i had given some ideas to mr hawkins but i think he may of used them to clean up his dribble. The government possess land and alot of it this land can be turned into cash but not by selling the land but by turning a crop and having people on the dole work it and the same with whats left of our forestry. But the best idea i had was to put first time ofenders into hard labored prison for minor offences give them 2 to 5 years (this would mean bring back had labored prison and let the wamby pamby politicians go home
