Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

ACT wants to overhaul the Sentencing Act and put the victims of crime at the centre of judges' considerations.

Under the policy, cultural background reports would no longer be considered as a principle of sentencing.

And home detention would only be an option if it didn't impact public safety.

ACT Leader David Seymour says this applies to sexual offenders who are on a community based sentence.

"At the moment, that's not a consideration that's made. And there's been instances where people have been let out in exactly that situation." 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A former Cabinet Minister's revealed he's heading back into politics - with just over two months to go until election day.

Newstalk ZB revealed Alfred Ngaro has formed a Christian Party, to be known as New Zeal.

Ngaro was a minister in Bill English's National Government, but says Christians need a voice which isn't being given by any party at the moment.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says Ngaro's not giving himself much of a runway.

"There's only 65 days to go until the election, so there's not a hell of a lot of time to get out there. It's a list-only party at this stage."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speculation is brewing over the intentions of the woman who cooked up a deadly mushroom lunch in Victoria

Gail and Don Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson died after having lunch at their ex-daughter-in-law Erin Patterson's home.

Heather's husband, Ian, remains in a critical condition.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the ex-husband of the woman, Simon Patterson, claims she once tried to poison him.

"Simon suspected he'd been poisoned by Erin, because he spent three weeks in intensive care." 

Forensics are underway on a food dehydrator found at a dump near the house.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland Primary Principals want education to stop being politicised.

A survey of 150 schools has found at least 45 minutes a day is currently being taught in each subject of reading, writing and maths.

National says it should be at least an hour, but educators say there's no value in that.

Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Kyle Brewerton says all parties are spouting ideology to get votes.

"Put your two cents worth in and push your ideas. The trouble is, every time we change Government that's millions and millions of dollars funding those changes. And often those changes serve no purpose and make no difference." 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ACT’s released its tougher on crime sentencing policy today, and I'll be honest with you- even I'm shocked at how little consideration judges have to pay to victims when they sentence offenders. 

ACT has pointed out that at the moment, basically everything is about the offender.

Take a look at the sentencing principles in the Sentencing Act:

Judges must take into account any particular circumstances of the offender that means that a sentence would be disproportionately severe.

They must take into account the offender’s personal, family, whanau, community, and cultural background in imposing a sentence.

And they must impose the least restrictive sentence, as in- the least harsh sentence they can impose.

And as for the victim, just one mention:

Judges must take into account any information provided to the court concerning the effect of the offending on the victim.

And as for the community and the risk to the community for the offender roaming the streets instead of being shoved into jail- absolutely nothing. 

That's nuts, isn’t it? 

How'd we get to this place? How'd we end up in a place where we are so focused on helping the offender live his or her best life, and we give no consideration to the risks to innocent people of that person staying out of jail.

And we give no consideration to the ongoing risk to the victim of that person staying out of jail.

Having pointed that out, ACT wants to change all that and put the victim and the community at the centre of sentencing and scrap the cultural reports, which basically make excuses for bad behaviour.

And you know what? That’ll mean more people in jail. Good.

Clearly, that’s what needs to happen. Our jail population has gone from 10,500 in 2017 to about 8400 now, and it is not working.

More of them in jail should be the goal as a society. Keeping us safe should be the goal.

Helping these bad guys live their best lives- not a priority. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has apologised for mistakenly revealing details of all 10,000 staff members.

By human error, the PSNI had shared names of all police and civilian personnel, where they were based and their roles.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says this breach puts them at risk of being targeted by republican paramilitaries, and they must be extremely vigilant about their security.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, Projects Director at Still, Sam Johnson, and Jack Tame from ZB's Saturday Mornings and Q&A joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

The National Party has promised they will ban mobile phones from schools if they get elected. Is this a good idea?

The Public Service Commission has told off the Ministry of Pacific Peoples for spending $40,000 on their chief executive's farewell. Is this an inappropriate use of taxpayer money?

A new Essential poll has Labour at 29 percent, National at 34.5 percent, the Greens on 8.5 percent, Act on 11.6 percent, The Maori Party on 2.5 percent and NZ First on 5.3 percent. Does this sound par for the course? What does this mean for election night?

The Crown are trying to appeal a $450,000 compensation pay-out for the 'Cuba St kisser'- the man who was sent to jail for seven years for indecent assault under the three strikes law. What do we think of this?

National's Sam Uffindell's copping heat for sharing his sporadic supermarket shopping habits - saying he tries to 'take the shopping list off his wife' once a month. Is this sexism or poor taste?

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Chinese economy has slipped into deflation, as declining domestic spending impacted the region's post-Covid recovery.

China's CPI fell 0.3 points in July, having completely flatlined in June.

These figures are off the back of exports falling sharply in July by 14.5 percent.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan says weak household demand and retail spending and a declining property market suggest the economy is going through a difficult time.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government's new partnership with BlackRock Capital is set to fast-track the nation's transition to renewable energy.

BlackRock's investment fund is set to boost renewable solar, wind and green hydrogen energy infrastructure to eventually produce 100 percent renewable electricity.

Milford Asset Management analyst Deborah Lambie warns New Zealand's power grid is set to face more challenge and complexity as a result.

"We need significant investments and upgrading in our grid in order to support the electrification trend that we're seeing."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government have ditched plans to implement tougher regulations on Buy Now, Pay Later providers.

They had initially proposed requiring affordability tests on purchases above $600 to ensure users could manage taking on debt, but have since ruled it 'too onerous'.

NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny says the Government may have been spooked by the fallout from the CCCFA changes, and will want to avoid a similar situation.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.