It also features a new offence for anyone who had the intent to injure a first responder or Corrections officer, with a maximum punishment of up to seven years in prison. <\/p>\n
The coalition agreement between National and NZ First included the introduction of bespoke legislation with a specific offence for assaulting first responders and prison officers. The agreement item also stated that the punishment would include \u201cminimum mandatory prison sentences\u201d. <\/p>\n
However, the current bill does not enforce minimum mandatory sentences. <\/p>\n
It includes an offence for unexpected blows to the head or neck, commonly known as coward punches. Should a coward punch result in a death, it could lead to a manslaughter conviction and, if not, imprisonment of up to 15 years. <\/p>\n
Like the first responders item, the coalition agreement included a commitment for new legislation that housed a specific offence for coward punches. However, the item did not reference minimum mandatory sentences. <\/p>\n
Winston Peters will likely campaign on harsher penalties. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Peters told the Herald he was \u201cseriously disappointed\u201d, given NZ First\u2019s \u201clong-standing policy\u201d of introducing minimum mandatory sentences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new law creates a new offence but doesn\u2019t deal with the concern of the weak sentences being handed out,\u201d Peters said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWithout serious sentencing changes, it makes this new coward punch law tantamount to pointless window dressing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters\u2019 calls for further reform were somewhat reflected by members of the justice select committee after they had received public submissions on the bill. Their commentary on the bill noted that Parliament\u2019s Office of the Clerk had advised that amending the Sentencing Act 2002 was necessary to implement mandatory minimum sentences, but that fell \u201coutside the legislative scope\u201d of the Crimes Amendment Bill. <\/p>\n
NZ First could have blocked the bill by not supporting it through the House and opted to reform the Sentencing Act. However, that wouldn\u2019t be possible before this year\u2019s election. <\/p>\n
Select committee members also noted concerns from submitters that the coward punch offence would be \u201cunlikely to be prosecuted because it would be harder to prove than the existing manslaughter offence and could create confusion and add complexity\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of us share their concerns about the risk that juries might be unable to reach a majority verdict, undermining the ability to get convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
As such, some members recommended the manslaughter offence be removed. Peters claimed his party had fought to retain it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seriously frustrated and disappointed about these aspects of the watered-down law changes and will be tabling amendments in the House to address this. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be campaigning in the election on these changes if they are not made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose parties who use \u2018tough on crime\u2019 as a soundbite don\u2019t cut it if they don\u2019t back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It also features a new offence for anyone who had the intent to injure a first responder or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4619,51164,17704,17517,29385,16574,206562,23999,92642,6129,4527,1888,7237,78,29269,111,43,139,69,30083,38631,4762,384,85935,16860,167051,21714,1322,253293,7563,80],"class_list":["post-508331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-act","tag-amendment","tag-assault","tag-because","tag-believes","tag-bill","tag-clauses","tag-commit","tag-coward","tag-crimes","tag-doesnt","tag-first","tag-governments","tag-in","tag-introduce","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offences","tag-opposing","tag-party","tag-people","tag-punches","tag-reform","tag-responders","tag-sections","tag-strict","tag-sufficiently","tag-those","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}