Everyone should feel safe in our communities, but due to a huge increase in crime and no clear plan to address it, people on the North Shore are rightly concerned about their safety.

Our streets are becoming less safe, and ram raids are creating more financial and emotional stress for business owners and their employees who are already struggling. Since 2017, gang membership is up 50%, retail theft is up 32%, and violent crime is up 21%.

Businesses on the North Shore have been hit hard, with some ram-raided or robbed multiple times in recent months, all while they struggle to access support to install security measures like bollards to keep themselves safe. Since 2017, New Zealand dairies, supermarkets, and liquor stores have seen a 25.7% increase in victimisations. Despite this, police are making fewer arrests. There has been a massive reduction of 62.8 % in arrests for offences against dairies, supermarkets, or liquor stores.

Our frontline officers are true heroes and do their best with the available tools. The problem they have is leadership, and Labour isn't providing any. We need to put victims first, with serious consequences for offenders; instead, we've seen the repeal of the Three Strikes law, which saw the most serious repeat offenders put away for longer, all while crime in the community is increasing to unprecedented levels. Gangs are recruiting faster than the police, and the government has voted down ten bills National has proposed to keep Kiwis safe.

National is unashamed to say we're tough on crime and its causes. We'd ban gang patches and insignia in public, stop gang members from gathering in public and stop them from accessing guns. National is solutions driven, and we will back police by giving them a range of new powers to disrupt and crack down on gangs and crime.

National's Deputy Leader Nicola Willis has announced our social investment strategy, which would use early intervention to address issues in Kiwis' lives using data and analytics for targeted action. These actions will help us tackle the causes of crime as early as possible with a focus on outcomes.

This cannot wait, and people on the North Shore need a plan and a government that is solutions driven.