Changes also include additional aggravating factors and sliding scale for early guilty pleas
Sentencing reforms seeking to restore crime’s real consequences and ensure that serious criminals are imprisoned for a longer time have passed final reading in Parliament.
Justice minister Paul Goldsmith called the move “a significant milestone.” According to the government’s news release, the changes aim to strengthen the criminal justice system, fulfill the government’s goal of restoring law and order, help Kiwis feel safer, and show victims that they are the government’s priority and deserve justice.
“Communities and hardworking New Zealanders should not be made to live and work in fear of criminals who clearly have a flagrant disregard for the law, corrections officers and the general public,” Goldsmith said.
While violent crimes, ram raids, and aggravated robberies have risen in number, New Zealand’s courts have recently been setting fewer and shorter prison sentences, Goldsmith noted in the news release.
“We know that undue leniency has resulted in a loss of public confidence in sentencing, and our justice system as a whole,” Goldsmith said. “We developed a culture of excuses for crime. That ends today.”
The news release shared the government’s commitment to reducing the number of victims of violent crime to 20,000 and serious repeat youth offences by 15% by 2029.
According to the government, the reforms seek to:
limit the sentencing discounts applicable by judges to 40 percent when weighing mitigating factors unless doing so would lead to manifestly unjust outcomes
prevent repeat discounts based on youth and remorse, given that lenient sentences have not deterred offenders who keep relying on their youth or expressions of remorse without seriously attempting to improve their behaviour
introduce a new aggravating factor for offences against sole charge workers and those with an interconnected home and business, as a response to serious retail crime and as a part of the government’s commitment in the National-Act coalition agreement
promote cumulative sentences for offences committed while on bail, in custody, or on parole to denounce behaviour displaying a disregard for the criminal justice system, as committed to in the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement
set out a sliding scale for early guilty pleas – namely a sentence discount of five percent at most for a guilty plea entered during trial and a maximum of 25 percent in the best-case scenario – to prevent undue discounts for late-stage guilty pleas and to avoid unnecessary, costly, and stressful trials
amend the sentencing principles to add a requirement to consider any information given to the court about victim interests, as committed to in both coalition agreements
add two aggravating factors for adults who exploit children and young people by aiding or abetting them to offend, as well as offenders who glorify their criminal activities by livestreaming or sharing them online
