Gower on Collins
Patrick Gower is doing a series of reports on the performance of key Ministers. He starts today with Judith Collins, whom he gives an 8/10.
Frontline police feel Ms Collins is on their side. On a macro-level, they have watched her preside over National coming good on its promise to put more police on the streets of South Auckland. She has also taken their fears about organised crime seriously, as seen in last week’s joint announcement with Commissioner Howard Broad about seizing the proceeds of crime.
On a micro-level, she is a proud Police Minister. Her empathy with police life was noted when Senior Constable Len Snee was murdered in the Napier siege, and she recalled her own time as a “police wife” when husband David Wong Tung was in the police and she wondered whether he would come home from work or not.
I didn’t realise until that siege, that Judith had been a “Police wife”.
Corrections is rated more difficult:
The Corrections portfolio has been a graveyard for many a minister, and at some point Ms Collins will have to start taking responsibility for its problems if she cannot solve them.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:07 am
I see the only real option for corrections as building a two tier system so we can work with those we can save and even privatising the hard nose part of it for the no hopers.
Increasing police powers makes no sense if we don’t add more bodies to the extra teams like the gang team.
We also have to depolitisise the police hierarchy and skop out the PC brigade.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
go the crusher..10/10…corrections easy…get rid of that arse covering paper shuffler mathews and put someone in charge with big balls…who they gona upset..crims?..crims families…big f***** deal…
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 am
She’s got to deal to the sentencing issues like this paedophile http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10606762
5x a sex offender and doesn’t get preventative detention.
I’m sorry? are we going to let a 5x criminal out again without the maximum sentence at least?
I also read this weekend about a guy who’s case was thrown out of court by judge and questioning why the Police brought it as he was defending himself.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10606614
There is a serious issue with the police not allowing people to defend them selves. It is an abuse of their position to not use common sense and put people through the grief they do. Stephen Franks has written on it several times.
So she has a culture change to effect too.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:25 am
Also Collins has got to get the Police powers right and their practices as FE Smith posted elsewhere.
# F E Smith (450) Vote: Add rating 2 Subtract rating 0 Says:
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
Oh, and while we are at it, we should pass a law requiring deputy registrars at our courts who can grant search warrants be required to actually read them before signing them! Seen that a few times as well..
This bill is introduced really because the Court of Appeal has spent the last 10 years criticising the police practices in applying for search warrants but the Police cannot seem to understand what they are doing wrong. The solution? Pass a law to make it easier to conduct search and surveillance and hope the Court of Appeal lets the mistakes pass.
Quite frankly, the Law Commission’s vision for the NZ criminal justice system scares me.
So IMHO Crusher Collins has a way to go before she gets an 8/10 from us.
That she has to steer Simon Power as well makes some of this harder.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
I liked her response to the napier gunmen, very supportive of police.
She really needs to cut the stunts however. I’m sick of the car crushing tough guy image- can’t we more past the superficiality of tougher penalties and look at the real causes of crime?
Even she would concede that there’s a lot more to being Police Minister than portraying yourself as NZ’s answer to Dirty Harry.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Starboard – NZ could learn a lot from Singapore about sentencing and economical prison operation. However it would be repulsive to most Kiwis except for the most hardened Senseless Sentencing Trust members.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
peter, I think we can learn even more from countries like Finland.
Singapore’s prison population is 357/100,000 pop, Finland 59, Iceland 38.
I wonder what those countries are doing differently to NZ, 157?
At Finland’s rate, Crusher Collins should be able to get to know them all by name!
And SST might be interest in knowing that in countries that apply harsh penalties like hand and neck chopping and stoning, the incarceration rate is within cooee or even higher than ours.
Just google world prison population. It’s interesting reading for those with an analytical mind.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
The Wong-Tung name adds an interesting dimension. During the recent tsunami, Judith mentioned that her husband was Samoan, and a former Police officer. I understand he is now a lawyer and an aid of some sort to the Samoan PM. By all accounts he is very highly respected.
Back in 1995 the Police brought the Notorious chapter of the Mongrel Mob to trial on LSD charges, including the Samoan leaders of the chapter, Jimmy and Roy Wong-Tung. I have no idea if they are related to Crusher’s husband, but given the unusual nature of the name, it is a distinct possibility. I don’t mention this as in any way being a slur by association, far from it. What it does represent though, if they are related, is a fairly common phenomena among large Maori and Pacific Island families for members of the same generation to split along gang/Police lines. Pita Sharples has often referred to it, saying ‘we all have gang memebers in our whanau’. it would be interesting if that extended to Collins, but even more interesting to know what factors influenced the decisions made by members of such families to take divergent paths in life.
On the lighter side, if they are related, the new anti-gang laws should spice up the family Christmas this year;)
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
peter, I think we can learn even more from countries like Finland.
Singapore’s prison population is 357/100,000 pop, Finland 59, Iceland 38.
I wonder what those countries are doing differently to NZ, 157?
“Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals”
http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals
Dunno what their incarceration rate is…
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
oops old figures
2008
Singapore 257
Finland 64
NZ 185
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Peterwn
lets keep it simple..3 strikes and ya out…and Im mean out..never to see the light of freedom again…
for straight out revolting murder eg c weatherston…needle or electric chair.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
starboard opines:
Ever been on a visit to a prison and had a look at the “crims families”, starboard? You’ll see a few dubious looking types sure (though even then you can’t judge a book by its cover) but you’ll also see elderly people (parents, I presume), children, sisters, brothers, neices and nephews…
As has been pointed out, it’s possible that Collins’ husband, a police officer, has a “crim” in his family. If so, perhaps you’d care to enlighten us as to why we shouldn’t give a damn about his feelings?
If a criminal’s family aids him or her in their criminal endeavours they are charged for so doing, and rightly so. If they didn’t, they are in fact secondary victims of the offending and as deserving of support and respect as the primary victims.
Is it that people such as yourself derive some sort of sadistic glee from imagining the hurt that can be caused to other people (always at arm’s length, of course, by baying for someone else to act tough on your behalf)? Or are you hoping to get a contract to run a private prison, and realise that dehumanising and re-victimising the sons, daughters, wives, husbands, cousins, nephews and neices of criminals – people who, for the most part, have done nothing wrong except be born into the wrong family or fall for the wrong person – is the perfect way to increase disrespect for law enforcement and further over-fill our prisons?
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
100 per 100k from around this time last year.
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_country.php?country=157
It’s dropped significantly over the past few years.
Don’t know why.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Rex
I enjoy your contributions to this site, however, I simply cannot agree with this statement..
“they are in fact secondary victims of the offending and as deserving of support and respect as the primary victims”
The only victims of crime are the poor bastards who have been assaulted, robbed, raped or ripped off, if the parents or family of the criminals have trouble dealing with the fact that a family member has been locked up for committing these crimes then tough fucking luck.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Ever been on a visit to a prison and had a look at the “crims families”, starboard? You’ll see a few dubious looking types sure (though even then you can’t judge a book by its cover) but you’ll also see elderly people (parents, I presume), children, sisters, brothers, neices and nephews…
..yes I have…Mt Eden , ChCh Prison and Rolleston prisons…whats your point? Ive seen more than a few ” dubious ” sorts..
As has been pointed out, it’s possible that Collins’ husband, a police officer, has a “crim” in his family. If so, perhaps you’d care to enlighten us as to why we shouldn’t give a damn about his feelings?
…dont know the guy and quite frankly dont care about his ” feelings ” ..its not my business…
If they didn’t, they are in fact secondary victims of the offending and as deserving of support and respect as the primary victims.
..agree…
Rex do you belong to the Howeird league for penal blah blah ??
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
big bruv:
I’m not sure what you’re saying here, BB. I don’t know many (though admittedly there are a few) family members who don’t think the criminal should be locked up for their crimes. They might think they’ve been locked up for too long (sometimes they’re right, sometimes not), but in general they’re very accepting of the fact that their family member needs to be punished. If they’re not accepting of that then I agree… there’s nothing we can (or should) do about that.
What I took starboard’s original comment to mean was that if we “toughened up” prisons in a way that affected prisoners’ families then that was too bad, because they didn’t deserve consideration. I’ve seen mooted here in the past (though not necessarily by satrboard… I can’t recall who it was) that prisoners should not be allowed visits, even phone calls or letters.
It’s that kind of “to hell with the families” attitude to which I was referring. Once again the word “prisoners” seems to have brought to mind only the worst, most violent thugs when there are all sorts in prison, many for non-violent offences. Even the families of thugs deserve respect if they’ve lived law abiding lives, though.
Having said that, in many years now of dealing with prisons I’ve had cause to complain about only one officer’s treatment of prison family visitors and to the prison’s credit he was transferred to a section of the prison where he no longer came into contact with the public. Every other officer (and I’m talking dozens) is unfailingly friendly, polite and sometimes even compassionate.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Rex..as you will be aware..I dont give one rats arse about criminals. In NZ they get it ,and have had it to easy for to long.
Sure you are gona get some who, for whatever reason be it wrong place wrong time get the bum end of the stick… thats life. The majority of crims are as cunning as shit house rats and deserve to be incarcerated for much longer than currently sentenced with hard labour and no parole..serve the full sentence…and yes Im happy to pay some more tax to fund prisons , staff , leg shackles etc etc
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
starboard:
That prisoners’ families are much like the rest of society. Mostly good and a few bad. And that yes it is a “big f****ing deal” if we refuse to consider their needs and their rights less so than we do anyone else’s, just as it would be if we disregarded another section of the population just because someone close to them behaved in a way of which we didn’t approve. Look out anyone married to a Labour voter!!
Then why is it your business to dismiss the feelings of every other relative of a prisoner with your “big f****ing deal” comment?
No I don’t. I doubt I’d gain membership because I happen to think MikeNZ had it spot on with the first comment on this thread:
What I’ve seen convinces me that there are a hard core of offenders who take pleasure from the pain of others – whether’s it’s stealing their property or taking their life. (Ironically, I see it as a corollary to the “hang ‘em all” sentiments I sometimes see on blogs, but that’s another story…). I suspect, however, that Peter Williams et al would argue that no one is beyond redemption.
And besides which, Peter and I have very different views on the legality – or illegality – of the actions of one Rt Hon WR Peters, former MP of no fixed abode.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
sure.. I can accept you are free to have your view , as am I….but for as long as my arsehole is pointing downwards my view will never change.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Patrick Gower says:
“Frontline police feel Ms Collins is on their side. On a macro-level, they have watched her preside over National coming good on its promise to put more police on the streets of South Auckland.”
Quite obviously he didn’t actually talk to anyone in Law Enforcement as they simply took 300 cops from central Auckland and sent them out South… Now central is cronically understaffed and any new staff is straight from Police College taking 2 years to train… Thanks Crusher…
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Well given that nearly everything we do these days is a crime, (if its illegal and immoral or it makes you fat), go to jail, how does anyone think that our prison population is going to decrease.
Holland’s is going down. Now would that be because the Muslims are taking over and Sharia law is be practiced? Food for thought.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Q&A: