Kerre Woodham: What issues are concerning you this election?

In light of the Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs' visit to the Mongrel Mob pad and their stated determination to restore the mana of the mob, I read Jamie Ensor's piece in the Herald with interest. According to Jamie, Labour hasn't proposed any specific new law and order policies with just days to go until the election. 

Law and order was a big flashpoint at the last election. The cost of living was also big, but law and order was right up there. People were fed up with teenage ram raiders and neighbourhood robbery sprees. Remember the footage, the awful footage from people's home cameras of young children being shoved out of cars, like nine and ten year olds, and pushed over fences in the middle of the night to nick what they could find. 

But this time around, it's the economy, stupid. Law and order isn't a thing because for the most part, there is law and order. Obviously, crime still occurs, but violent crime is down and the gangs aren't so in your face taking over the streets and drumming up business and recruiting young kids on every street corner. And the kids themselves seem to have moved on to another TikTok trend other than ram raids. And to be fair, according to the data, the ram raids were starting, starting to come down by the end of 2023. 

Even for the main opposition party, law and order is not a priority come this election. It seems to be pretty much, yeah, what they're doing, we'll do that. Earlier in the year, Labour promised to repeal the boot camps. Fair enough, if the evidence isn't there to support keeping them, do away with them. They were going to focus on evidence-based interventions. And without explicitly stating what those are, I imagine it would be a continuation of that wrap around support that they introduced in 2023 that was starting to get the ram raids down. Every time a kid was caught, they'd bring in what parents they could find or what caregivers they could find, police, school, social workers, psychologists, the whole shebang. And that did seem to be working. 

Labour has said their thoughts on law and order, if you really want to know what they are, are in the manifesto. And besides, as is quoted in Jamie's piece, "We're campaigning on policies focused on the cost of living, jobs, health, and homes as a priority." That's what they see as the main drivers of the 2026 election. In '23 law and order was a thing. It's a bit like diseases, really, childhood diseases. They were a thing back in our grandparents' day, a really big thing. When vaccinations came in, it was fantastic. And then a couple of generations later, we don't see them anymore. They're not a thing. You don't vaccinate because they're not around, so you don't think of them. Law and order's a bit like that. When, when things are steady as she goes, you don't think about it because you don't have to. 

I spoke to Chris Hipkins' person, and she said she'd get a list of their law and order policies to me. They were updating the website right now because when Jamie did a search on justice, police, crime, nothing came up on the Labour Party website. And I had another check and nope, nothing came up either. It's not a thing for them. They don't see it as something that's going to be a flashpoint for voters this election. 

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this one. When it comes to this election, what are the main things you're focusing on? What is it for you? Are you voting the way you've always voted because that's the way you vote? Are you voting on policies? That's pretty much what I'll be doing. For me, it's education and law and order. They were the things that were really bugging me last time around. I don't think there's a lot you can do about the cost of living. That's international influences and it really wouldn't matter who was in. Yes, Labour contributed to it by spending so much money that was not Covid related on Covid related things, but ultimately, they had to borrow a lot of money, we have to pay it back. I do wonder where they're going to get the money from for the pay parity and that makes me nervous. I don't care about a capital gains tax. I am concerned about who comes in, but I have to hold my nose if I vote National too, given their political partners. Ultimately, what it comes down to is the policies for me. And education, law and order, and that's what I'm going to be voting on. 

What concerns you? One of our callers the other day said he was thinking about the Opportunity Party because of the cost of living. Opportunity Party because he thought he was sick of the others. Another caller said he was going to vote the Greens because of their supermarket, because he was so sick of trying to find the money to pay for the family's household grocery bill. Anything that was going to relieve that he'd look at. So is it the economy, stupid? Is that what concerns you most? Are you looking at the different parties' policies and deciding, or are you just going with who you've always gone for and that's the way it is?