Crime in Aotearoa is a result of colonisation and inequality. If we are serious about curbing crime and violence in the country, then we need to get serious about looking at the causes, not the symptoms. We must invest more into initiatives that work, like Whānau Ora, and into our communities, who know what is needed to reconnect whānau to their marae, their hapū, their iwi, and their Māoritanga. State-run services have proven to fail Māori, and it's time to devolve our resources by Māori, for Māori, to Māori kaupapa. We are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in generations. Successive Governments have continued to ignore growing inequality and the breakdown of community that drives people to commit crimes in the first place, opting for a tough on crime approach to poverty instead.