Proposed changes will lower qualifying sentence threshold, reactivate warnings from former regime
The New Zealand government has announced that the Cabinet agreed to recommend modifications to the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill, which will reduce the qualifying sentence threshold and reactivate warnings from the previous regime if they meet this threshold.
“This Government is committed to restoring law and order,” said Nicole McKee, New Zealand’s associate justice minister, in a news release. “The Bill to reinstate the Three Strikes law makes it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not acceptable in our society.”
The proposed changes will include lowering the qualifying sentence threshold to more than 12 months’ imprisonment at the first strike.
This adjustment aims to capture more offenders within the regime and to ensure that offenders face the proper consequences if they continue committing serious violent and sexual offences, McKee said in the news release of the New Zealand government.
The government will keep the threshold at more than 24 months’ imprisonment at strikes two and three so that it can reserve stiffer penalties for more serious offending as intended by the Three Strikes regime, the news release stated.
The recommended modifications will also include the reactivation of strike warnings in the new regime if they meet the qualifying threshold so that offenders warned under the previous regime will face consequences if they continue to offend.
Background
McKee explained that, through the select committee process, the government listened to submitters who identified areas for changing the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill to deter repeat offenders and to protect victims.
According to submitters, the government had originally set the qualifying sentence threshold too high. The Bill originally set this threshold at more than 24 months’ imprisonment across the board with the aim of reserving severe penalties for serious cases.
“The Coalition Government is committed to restoring law and order by enforcing tougher consequences for the worst criminals and keeping them off the street,” McKee said in the government’s news release. “Everyone in New Zealand has the right to feel safe in their homes, businesses, and communities.”
The previous three strikes law, which was introduced in the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010, was repealed in 2022, the news release noted. a
