The Government is reinstating the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced on Monday.
Ahead of last year's election, National promised to reintroduce the law which it says will stop criminals from re-offending and ending up in prison.
On Monday, McKee said the Government is committed to "restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals".
"We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not acceptable in our society," she said.
"New Zealanders are rightly concerned about violent crime in our country. Everyone in New Zealand has the right to feel safe in their homes, businesses and communities.
"This Government will ensure that sentencing for repeat offending properly recognises the harm caused to victims and communities. That is why we are bringing back a revised Three Strikes law."
McKee said the Government is making changes to create a "more workable regime".
The new regime will:
- Cover the same 40 serious violent and sexual offences as the former legislation, with the addition of the new strangulation and suffocation offence;
- Introduce a new requirement that the Three Strikes law will only apply to sentences above 24 months;
- Extend the use of the "manifestly unjust" exception to allow some judicial discretion to avoid very harsh outcomes and address outlier cases;
- Provide a limited benefit for guilty pleas to avoid re-traumatisation of victims, and to improve court delays; and
- See that people who commit murder at second or third strike receive an appropriately lengthy non-parole period.
McKee said the Government is sending a strong message that repeat offending will not be tolerated.
"This is a priority for the Government and continues the progress we have already made on restoring law and order, through changes to repeal the funding for section 27 reports and measures to crack down on gangs."
The Minister intends to bring a draft bill and paper to Cabinet by the end of June and to introduce the bill to the House soon after that.
The Green Party is slamming the new Three Strikes legislation, calling it "archaic" and an "unwelcome return to a failed American-style approach to justice".
"New Zealand needs a justice system that treats all people with humanity, dignity, and respect," Green Party justice spokesperson Tamatha Paul said.
"Bringing back the failed Three Strikes law will lead to grossly unfair results that disproportionately impact Māori, including much harsher sentences than would otherwise be imposed."
Paul said it is "shameful" that New Zealand has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the developed world despite mounting evidence mass incarceration has "failed to bring down rates of crime, keep communities safe, or rehabilitate those in our system".
"The Government is hell-bent on funnelling more and more people into prisons. It is another poorly thought out idea imported from the United States that is designed to do little more than make the Government look 'tough'," she said.
Paul said if the Government genuinely cared about improving crime it would take action to address the root causes of offending such as mental healthcare, addiction treatment, housing and liveable income support, along with introducing a new pathway away from prisons.
"Imprisonment can and must be seen as a last resort, rather than the failed norm in our system.
"The Three Strikes law means that mistakes that people might make as teenagers will be with them for their entire life.
"It means even if you've turned your whole life around, you could still end up in prison for life.
"It means no matter what changes you make towards being a better person, your life is reduced down to these rigid and inhumane three strikes and there's nothing a judge can do about it," she said.
The previous Three Strikes law, which came into force under National and ACT in 2010, meant third-time serious offenders get the maximum sentence with no chance of parole.
Labour repealed the legislation in 2021 calling it an "anomaly in New Zealand's justice system that dictates what sentences judges must hand down irrespective of relevant factors".
"It has led to some absurd outcomes. In one case, for example, a person was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for an offence for which the sentencing judge indicated that they would, ordinarily, have imposed 18 months in prison," then Justice Minister Kris Faafoi said.
The decision to repeal the law was met with criticism from ACT and National who called Labour "soft on crime".
