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Govt plans organised crime crackdown

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Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:21a.m. UPDATED 2:38PM

Judith Collins (NZPA)

Judith Collins (NZPA)

By 3news.co.nz staff

The Government says it is going to crack down on organised crime by improving information sharing between agencies and placing a stronger focus on "disrupting the money trail underpinning offending".

The new initiative, 'Strengthening New Zealand's Resistance to Organised Crime', has been developed by the Ministry of Justice along with police, the Serious Fraud Office, Ministry of Economic Development and other groups.

“Money underpins crime, so Government agencies are stepping up efforts to confiscate the proceeds of crime and work more closely with the financial sector to ensure there are no weak links in our rules and systems that criminals can exploit," says Police Minister Judith Collins.

“Eradicating organised crime and the misery in its wake is one of the major law and order priorities of this Government."

Ms Collins is brushing off concerns about a loss of privacy through information-sharing.

“The people who actually benefit most about a lack of information sharing are quite often organised crime. Where as for the civil libertarian concerns I think they should be very concerned like the rest of us about organised crime and the fact that they could well target New Zealand.”

Justice Minister Simon Power says the Government has been successful in fighting organised crime, but needs to change with the times.

We’ve done a lot already to fight organised crime, and we’ve been successful.

“But these networks can change tactics rapidly to take advantage of gaps in laws, technology, trade, and financial systems, so our response needs to be equally adaptable and, more importantly, use all the resources we have at our disposal.”

The Government will begin with legislative changes it says will "remove impediments to the effective combating of organised crime, and disrupting key tools and processes used by organised criminals".

The full release can be read on the police website here.

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Comments

29 Aug 2011 12:59p.m.

jan.. wrote:

johnmillian, what have you done to our country? were you born to this disaster? I wasn't born with today's disater, today's disaster must probably comes from the outer planets that needs to redirect to non violence..

24 Aug 2011 09:30a.m.

Wiseacre wrote:

The neo-liberal agenda of transferring the wealth of the community into the ownership of the elite few through privitisation, deregulation, and tax cuts that overwhelmingly favour the wealthy coupled with falling real incomes, rapidly rising living costs, and cuts to social services that overwhelmingly impact on the poor is the greatest organised crime ever perpetrated against the people. The misery left in it's wake of unemployment, poverty, vulnerable children and a bleak future for the majority are the inevitable outcome of selfish, greedy right-wing policies. The right-wing idea that the poor should have to sacrifice what little they have and be made to pay for a recession caused by the greed of the wealthy elite is criminal.

24 Aug 2011 08:30a.m.

jan wrote:

the government no matter who the party is have got there mainly from large amounts of money, so who is the organised crime syndicate then? notice how she says if you dont support/ agree with me then you are stupid. we already have the government agencies sharing our information between them. passport, car registration, voting, winz, tax, ecucation, police, children, doctors, eg breast, prostate, cervical all go on a data base which any government agency can access. sure some need to apply but others dont. its not only beneficiares who are being monitered its all of us. its like drift net fishing which i think is illegal where every fish is caught up when only one type of fish was wanted. organised crime and it is organised will just change their method of operation to not get caught, and in the mean time we are caught instead. look at the other bright idea the government is looking at, you wont be able to make any racist remark. you might think thats a great idea, but its the principle just like this one, of our freedoms are being eroded. its not for our protection its to monitor us. and if they have been so successful in the past, how come we still have gangs and P? Im surprised they dont make it easier for themselves and have us personally barcoded with a tattoo. it is coming. they steal babies dna by doing the heel prick saying its to test for a vitamin k deficincy.

23 Aug 2011 08:58p.m.

Davo wrote:

Give it up, Chris, you deluded, imbecilic muppet. The biggest form of organized crime in this country is the National Party and the corporate collusion than entails their failed economic policies. Ban them as well as the ACT party and shoot their supporters, I say.

23 Aug 2011 05:50p.m.

Alien wrote:

isn't it sad how negative and pathetic labour supporters are. unlike the previous government that disbanded the police special drug units.

23 Aug 2011 05:19p.m.

Mike wrote:

Good luck with that Judith Collins, i doubt Roger Douglas and Act will be that easy to defeat.

23 Aug 2011 04:34p.m.

Chris wrote:

Hopefully they will arrest the welfare socialist from Labour the Greens and the Unionists. They have done more damage to NZ then any organised criminals or gangs combined. Their sick, morally bankrupt and corrupt idealogy has ruined lives, and families and destroyed NZ society.

23 Aug 2011 03:09p.m.

katrina wrote:

Have a close look at Russian imigration. The Russian Mafia are alive and well in New Zealand and think that our security standards are a joke.

23 Aug 2011 02:09p.m.

joghnmillan wrote:

This great woman is having another go at something that will not work,failure after failure,Bennett and her along with all the other women have wasted one hell of a lot of taxpayers money on just trying, In failure and wages.

23 Aug 2011 12:30p.m.

John wrote:

How can the government crack down on the government? Government + media = organised crime in New Zealand. Just look at Duncan Garner's pro-National reporting, or the lack of any news that's bad for National (theres lots), or the supposed "polls" showing National miles ahead... There's organised crime for ya.