Clean Safe New Zealand is a painful myth.

We are paying the price of a culture that penalises the innocent and forgives the criminal.

The law-abiding middle class of New Zealand has lost confidence in the law.

There is more indecision from those who must enforce the law.

More doubt about its value.

More reluctance to provide resources.

More argument and more pressure on the courts to find cunning arguments to avoid enforcing the clear words of the law.

Criminal behaviour is disproportionately concentrated among a small group of people who are contemptuous of the law. Whatever the excuses, alcohol, religious mania, a warrior inheritance or absence of self-esteem, these people know that the law will not be enforced as it was intended.

For these career criminals we should perhaps consider the US policy of Three Strikes and You are Out.

Unpalatable as it may be to us, this policy has seen crime reduced every year in the United States since 1991. Violent crime is now below levels of the 1960s.

Making the law more certain, and rejecting excuses does work.

We believe that laws should:

* Mean what they say
* Be enforceable
* Be enforced

Give your Party Vote to ACT.