There's nowhere to hide from law and order this election, with ram raids, gangs and violent offending grabbing headlines up and down the motu.
Ministry of Justice statistics - released on Wednesday - show a fifteen percent increase in charges taken to court in the year to June, compared with the same period the year before. For youth crime, the increase was thirteen percent.
So how would our political hopefuls reduce crime and create a safer country for New Zealanders?
Parties on both ends of the political spectrum have produced detailed policies with their plans.
Here now to debate them, we're joined by spokespeople from five of the six top-polling parties. ACT declined to participate.
Ginny Anderson for Labour is in Wellington, while Mark Mitchell for National, Ricardo Menéndez March for The Green Party, John Tamihere for Te Pāti Māori and Winston Peters for New Zealand First are in Auckland.
