Just over two months out from New Zealand's national election, Christopher Luxon, the National Party leader believes reducing the cost of living, restoring law and order and delivering better health and education services are the main topics they want to tackle as potential leaders of Aotearoa.
Following the tragic death of two members of the public by a construction worker in Auckland's Commercial Bay on Tuesday, Luxon told REX host Rebecca Greaves that a tougher approach to crime could have prevented this attack altogether.
"He was in theory up for a three-year (prison) sentence that ended up getting discounted down to a five-month home detention," he said.
"That's the critical question that Kiwis are now asking which is how on earth did this offender get such a light sentence for what was quite a violent crime? And that's the big issue."
National's proposal to decrease crime is to tackle gangs, in particular, implement more serious consequences, particularly for young offenders, and stronger sentencing by limiting the amount that judges can discount sentences.
"We are seeing offenders get up to 85% discounts from the starting penalty or sentencing as judges discount a whole bunch of things that water down sentences.
"We appreciate judges need to have some discretion with respect to individual cases but there needs to be a limit."
Luxon said he cannot see why any sentence should be discounted more than 40% outside of extremely unique and limited cases where admission of guilt and clear remorse is seen.
Latest data suggest there are rough 54,000 potholes on New Zealand roads each year and although NZTA is supposed to fix them within 48 hours, anecdotal evidence would suggest that is not the case more often than not, Luxon explained.
"Our roads should be safe, convenient and good quality so people can get to and from work and make social connections with each other."
National plan to allocate $500 million, taken out of existing spending to repair potholes on State Highways within 24 hours as well as making a commitment to repave 2% of New Zealand's road network every year.
Listen to the full chat between National Party Leader Christopher Luxon and Rebecca Greaves above.
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