We are now just moments away from the nationwide vigils and protests against retail crime planned to take place outside dairies and Labour MPs offices.

This comes after the murder of 34 year old Janak Patel outside the Rose Cottage Dairy in Sandringham last Wednesday. In the half week of debate after this crime we have seemingly talked about every aspect of crime without touching the major factor behind the Rose Cottage crime. People assumed it was part of the ram raid fad that has taken hold this spring, that it was theft of cigarettes and vapes that have gained a new transactional value due to their high price due to the taxes imposed upon them. That the offenders were youth who have no fear of consequence from the NZ Police or Justice System. That this crime was spurned on by a government that is portrayed as soft on crime.

As we have found out in the fullness of time, the alleged offender was 34. His accomplice 42. These were not kids.  It was not a ram raid.  They were after the cash register not the ciggies. There has been a consequence as the alleged offenders have been caught and charged. We found out that Rose Cottage has a long history of violent crime that pre dates this government, including being hit 2 months in a row in 2016 and one of those incidents was an armed robbery.

And most tellingly we have discovered the alleged offender was deported from Australia.

The grounds for his deportation from Australia cannot be reported for legal reasons but he joins a long list of deportees returned to New Zealand that have gone on to cause havoc.

The 501 strategy of deporting New Zealanders on bad character assessments has been happening since 2016. In that time 3000 odd holders of New Zealand passports have been sent back to this country. They have boosted gang numbers and brought a new level of organisation and violence with them. They have committed 8000 offences with more than a third of those offences have been violent.

We have been used as a rubbish bin and the Aussies know it which is why Peter Dutton famously called the policy taking the trash out. A new government is now in place and more sympathetic to New Zealand.  Does this mean the mass importation of criminals raised in Australia might stop?

Well, the Australian Home Affairs Minister, Clare O'Neil, featured on Q&A yesterday. She said that while they were looking at the treatment of New Zealanders in Australia, the 501 deportation policy wasn’t going anywhere because it is an important national security policy for their country. So the mass importation of hardened criminals continues.  

In my opinion it is the single biggest driver of a perceived rise in crime and yet we are powerless to resist.