Paul Goldsmith says law and order is back. Victims would struggle to recognise it

OPINION: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says safety is being restored, but that claim is colliding with a far more confronting reality, one that exposes the limits of political messaging when it meets the lived experience of harm.

Goldsmith is the public face of National’s law and order agenda, including claims there are now 38,000 fewer victims of serious violent crime. He says it proves the Government’s approach is working.

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Image: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith campaigns for the National Party, which pledged to restore law and order after winning the 2023 general election. (File / Press Pool)

As Justice Minister, Goldsmith is responsible for delivering Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s promise to restore law and order, placing him at the centre of the Government’s crime reduction agenda and making him directly accountable for whether New Zealanders are actually safer.

The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report has delivered a stark counterpoint, showing family violence has climbed to its highest level since 2018, a statistic that directly challenges the claim that New Zealand is becoming safer where it matters most.

Safety cannot be credibly defined through selective improvements in certain offence categories while the most prevalent form of violence in this country continues to rise, affecting thousands of women, children, and vulnerable people whose daily reality is still shaped by the risk of harm behind closed doors.

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The Government’s messaging is a familiar political strategy that emphasises statistics which support claims of progress while avoiding equal scrutiny of trends that undermine them and leadership on crime demands confronting the full picture, not just the portion that aligns with a preferred narrative.

Family violence is consistently one of the largest drivers of police demand and one of the most destructive forces in our communities. Its continued rise undercuts the credibility of any claim that law and order is being restored in a meaningful way.

Image: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith spoke to media in Wellington, where the Government outlined its priorities to restore law and order and deliver core public services. (File / Press Pool)

When Goldsmith stands before the media and highlights reductions in specific crime categories without acknowledging the simultaneous increase in family harm, it presents a version of reality that is fundamentally disconnected from the experiences of victims, because safety is not something that can be selectively applied or politically framed, it is either improving across people’s lives or it is not.

The role of Justice Minister carries with it the responsibility to present crime trends honestly and completely. Real harm affects real people, and when family violence continues to trend upward, it raises legitimate questions about whether the Government’s policies are addressing the most entrenched and damaging forms of offending.

The issue is whether New Zealanders are genuinely safer overall, and the rise in family violence suggests that for many of the country’s most vulnerable, safety remains elusive despite the Government’s assurances.

Image: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith arrived at Parliament in Wellington, where restoring law and order was identified as a key priority in his ministerial portfolio. (File / Press Pool)

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Political narratives can shape the public’s perception, but they cannot change reality recorded in police callouts, hospital admissions, and victim reports, and until those indicators show fewer families experiencing violence, claims of restored law and order risk sounding like a political interpretation of incomplete evidence.

The measure will not be found in selective statistics or confident declarations, but in whether fewer people are being hurt in the places they should feel safest.

Law and order is not defined by what a minister says, it is defined by whether New Zealanders are actually safer.

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