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Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister on the number of criminals being sent to prison reaching an all-time high · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Do the crime do the time. This is new Ministry
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  Speaker 1: of Justice figures out this morning. The year to June seven,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred people were sent to prison following a conviction.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: That is a fourteen percent jump on last year, a
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  Speaker 1: thirty five percent jump on twenty two to twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: Paul Goldsmith, the Justice minister. Minister, good morning, good morning,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: how are you good? Thank you? Is that as high
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  Speaker 1: as you would want it?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, our focus is not on a prison number.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Our focus is on reducing the number of victims of crime.
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  Speaker 2: And so what we're seeing that there has been a
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  Speaker 2: bit of a rebalancing going on. You know, the previous
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  Speaker 2: government was focused on reducing the prison population come what may,
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  Speaker 2: and unfortunately that sort of at the same time we
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  Speaker 2: had a big increase in crime, and particularly violent crime.
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  Speaker 2: And so our focus is on reducing the number of
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  Speaker 2: victims of crime and if that leads to a higher
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  Speaker 2: prison population in the short term, will show be it
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  Speaker 2: a long term? Of course, we want to have less crime,
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  Speaker 2: less people in prison.
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  Speaker 1: Is the Are the rates making sense? In other words,
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  Speaker 1: we've got to four four team percent increase in prison
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  Speaker 1: sentences following convictions. Are we seeing a consummate four in
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  Speaker 1: violent crime reporting.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean, look, all these figures are complicated,
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  Speaker 2: these big lags. The figure that we focus on in
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  Speaker 2: terms of our target is the Crime and Victims Survey,
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  Speaker 2: because a lot of people don't report crime to the
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  Speaker 2: police and that doesn't go through the whole core process,
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  Speaker 2: but they're still victims, and on that score we are
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  Speaker 2: seeing an improvement. We had one hundred and eighty five
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  Speaker 2: thousand New Zealanders being a victim of serious violent or
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  Speaker 2: sexual offending when we came to power. That numbers down
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  Speaker 2: to one hundred and fifty six thousand. Still one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and fifty six thousand too many, but it is a
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  Speaker 2: significant improvement. So we're making progress. There are a fewer
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  Speaker 2: victims of crime, but there's a hell of a lot
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  Speaker 2: more work to do.
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  Speaker 1: Maldi two times more likely to get a prison sentence
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  Speaker 1: than non Maldi, non Maldi more likely to get a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: monetary sentence. Why racist judges or types of crime?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, I think it's primarily the later. That if
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  Speaker 2: the vast majority of people who go to prison in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand are there for serious violent or sexual offending, yes,
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  Speaker 2: that these stature are slight and increase in the number
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  Speaker 2: of people for drug offenses, but that's still a very
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  Speaker 2: small minority of people in prison. Most people going to
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  Speaker 2: prison in New Zealand have committed serious folance or sexual
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  Speaker 2: offending and we make no apology. We need to have
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  Speaker 2: clear consequences for crime and our focuses on keeping the
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  Speaker 2: people of New Zealand safe.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: What's your take on the Tom Phillipson junction situation? Is
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  Speaker 1: your view that are because it's out there, just because
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  Speaker 1: it's on social media, we should let it run.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not my view. My view is that the
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  Speaker 2: courts have imposed suppression orders and that's for the courts
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  Speaker 2: to decide, and I'm not going to interfere with that
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  Speaker 2: in any way, shape or form. There is obviously a
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  Speaker 2: challenge in the sense that the fact that people get
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  Speaker 2: their information all from all around the world and it's
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  Speaker 2: impossible to police internest and what people in Kazakhstan are
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  Speaker 2: saying on TikTok or whatever, then that's a challenge. And
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  Speaker 2: the only point I'd make is that nobody's presented me
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  Speaker 2: with an effective solution to that. But we're looking and
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  Speaker 2: if we could find one, we would, But in the meantime,
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  Speaker 2: courts are doing the best they can.
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  Speaker 1: What's the punishment, because not just people in kazakhstance, people here.
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  Speaker 1: What is the punishment?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know the exact figure, but that there
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  Speaker 2: is certainly a potential finds for people who break suppression orders.
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  Speaker 1: Is a fine enough?
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  Speaker 2: That's a matter for the courts to impost. Well, they
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  Speaker 2: may have more. I'm sorry, I just don't. I don't
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  Speaker 2: have the details in front of me. But the courts
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  Speaker 2: have the ability to enforce that. But that obviously is
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  Speaker 2: for them to and the police to make decisions around that.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think it's time to double down? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: whatever the punishment is, clearly it's not enough because people
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  Speaker 1: aren't scared enough, you know what I mean. And you're
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  Speaker 1: all about harsher penalty, so is this something you'll.
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  Speaker 2: Look Well, sorry, I'm not all about harsher penalties. I'm
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  Speaker 2: about consequences for crime. But I'm about reducing the number
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  Speaker 2: of victims of crime. That's our real focus. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: look on my primary focus is on trying to reduce
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  Speaker 2: the number of people who are victims of violent and
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  Speaker 2: sexual offending. And that's the number one priority. And there's
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  Speaker 2: still a huge amount of work to do there.
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  Speaker 1: All right, okay, good to see Paul goldsmiths Houesday Justice Minister.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Time for more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen
• 4:25
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