Hear ye. Hear ye. All rise for Judge Luxon. The Court of Bang ’Em Up For Life is now in session.
When it comes to election-year tough-on-crime policies, the Nats are repeat offenders. It’s a bit boring.
This would have added a bit of zing: at the annual National Party conference last week, Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon announced he was appointing himself as a High Court judge and would bring back hanging. No, of course he didn’t. Nothing as exciting as that ever happens at party conferences.
He did announce that under his government judges would be prevented from dishing out discretionary discounts of more than 40% on criminal sentences. The Nats would also restrict theaccount the cultural context for a crime, and which can also result in reduced time. Those Nats are tough guys. But while they want to look tough, they don’t want to come across as ogres who keep bad guys chained up in the cellar. So there was a sweetener: rehabilitation would be available to remand prisoners presentencing. As sweeteners go, this amounts to a grain of that awful artificial stuff that people who don’t use sugar stir into their instant coffee.
