from Nicole McKee

Parliament has just passed my bill to reinstate Three Strikes so that the most serious repeat violent and sexual offenders are locked away for longer where they can’t terrorise the community.

This delivers on a key ACT Party coalition commitment to come down hard on crime and side with victims, not the offenders.

I’ve just got back to the office following my third reading speech on the bill and wanted to share the news with you directly. 

Reinstating the Three Strikes regime will help keep New Zealanders safer while sending a strong message to those who keep committing these serious crimes that they will face increasingly serious consequences.

Here’s how it will work:

Strike 1: Offenders are sentenced as usual and warned of the consequences of re-offending in the future.

Strike 2: Offenders will not be eligible for parole and will serve their full sentence behind bars.

Strike 3: Offenders will be forced to serve the maximum available penalty for that crime, without parole.

We’ve also expanded the crimes that are considered strike offences so more serious violent and sexual offenders can be captured by the regime. We’ve added a new strangulation and suffocation offence to those covered by the previous regime, taking that list of qualifying offences to 42.

ACT has listened to New Zealanders and is committed to enforcing tougher consequences for serious violent and sexual offenders while denouncing their actions.

Labour repealed Three Strikes, letting violent thugs out onto the streets earlier – and sometimes not even putting them behind bars at all.

They tried being kind to criminals. They set a ridiculous ‘prisoner reduction target’ without actually trying to reduce crime – we abolished that. They funnelled millions of dollars into sob-story ‘cultural’ reports so criminals could get lighter sentences – we’ve cut those too. Labour’s opposition to the bill was based on concerns for the offender. I make no apology for putting victims first.

But to show how deeply unserious they are about crime, many Labour MPs didn’t even bother to show up and vote against the bill. Only 22 out of their usual 34 votes were cast – embarrassing. ACT is serious about restoring law and order, consequences for crime are back, and it’s game over for violent thugs.

Three Strikes has been ACT policy for many years, we were instrumental in introducing it the first time around and I’m proud to be the Minister in charge of bringing it back.

This is what real change looks like.

Thank you for all that you do,

Hon Nicole McKee
ACT List MP
Minister for Courts
Associate Minister of Justice