The Government has announced two new high-needs units will be built within youth justice residences it says is part of a broader package intended to curb a recent spike in youth offending such as ram raids.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the units were also needed after the introduction of 17-year-olds into the youth justice system in 2019, which had “created challenges”.
The move has drawn criticism from National and Act who say it is pure politics to announce less than three months out from the election, and a bid to catch up with them and appear “tough” on crime.
Support partner the Greens have meanwhile criticised the Government from the other side, accusing Labour of competing with National to be tough on crime and turning its back on tackling the root causes of crime.
Amnesty International and justice reform advocates have also come out against the changes accusing Labour of seeking to turn youth facilities into adult prisons.
Hipkins meanwhile strongly rejected those characterisations.
He said the policies - among a wider law and order package being unveiled over three days this week - were focused on “prevention, protection and accountability”.
They would also make youth residences safer and more secure - with more searches and physical alterations to prevent recent instances such as claiming onto roofs - along with more focus on family group conferences and other early intervention measures to stop young people from getting into the system in the first place.
It comes after an announcement yesterday of a suite of measures - the first of this week’s law and order package - aimed at those people who encourage or reward children for criminal behaviour, and those who post recordings of their crimes on social media.
Further powers were given to the Family Court, including allowing the court to require young offenders to perform community activities like cleaning graffiti or picking up rubbish. Currently, the court could only recommend it.
The policy sought to further reposition Labour to the centre and into campaign mode with a raft of new policies appearing to shift into National’s “tough on crime” space.
The moves have drawn claims from National and Act that Hipkins’ announcement was purely political and an attempt to win votes, pointing out it was possible some of the new measures might not be introduced before Parliament stops on August 31.
Indeed, the Government has consistently pushed back on youth crime-focused policies from National and Act saying more punitive approaches have never worked, and claiming youth offending has been decreasing dramatically long-term. According to the Minister of Justice, youth offending has decreased over 60 per cent over the past decade.
Hipkins rejected any assertion it was a kneejerk reaction, stating the policies had been worked on for some time and were largely a response to a recent spike in youth offending, such as ram raids, and the 2019 changes to include 17 year olds in the youth justice system.
Some issues had also been identified in recent incidents at Oranga Tamariki residences, with a wider review being led by former Police Commissioner and new deputy CEO of Oranga Tamariki Mike Bush.
Hipkins said Act was effectively proposing for youth residences to be turned into prisons, run by Corrections, with up to 200 beds - “basically a mega prison for young people”.
“That is not what we’re talking about.”
Hipkins said their policy would be focused on a “continuum of care” for young people who may have done serious offending and need support and rehabilitation.
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis said these units would be for young people already in residences who needed extra attention, rather than to increase capacity.
He said it would be focused on older teenagers, but they were still working through the model of care. He could not rule out 12-year-olds going into the units if required.
Asked about comments from Chief Children’s Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers that “residences need to be shut down and replaced with a system that’s fit for purpose”, Davis said he believed she was referring to care and protection residences - for young people who have not committed crimes - as opposed to youth justice residences.
The Herald has sought clarification from Eivers’ office.
Hipkins said there had not been any costings nor design work done for the facilities, but this was normal process as it had only jut been signed off by Cabinet.
The units would aim to provide more intensive support for the most serious offending and will predominantly cater for older teenagers.
“There is a big difference between a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old and what support and guidance they need,” Hipkins said.
“I want to see these new units designed with the best-possible rehabilitation models in mind for these offenders.”
Davis said new changes to legislation would also be introduced to allow for staff, visitors, and young people to be searched in a non-invasive manner when entering the premises.
The ability to place young people in secure care when it is believed a mass disorder event is imminent will also be a new tool available to staff.
“Over the past six months we have seen an increase in unacceptable behaviour in youth justice residences, such as damage to facilities and roof stand-offs,” Davis said.
“That is simply not good enough and along with the immediate strengthening of these facilities staff need to be able to stop these types of events when they know something is brewing.”
Search changes would reduce any contraband and weapons entering, and be done in the least-invasive way possible – more akin to passing through a metal detector at airport security, Davis said.
Oranga Tamariki Family Group Conferences (FGC) would also get an extra $1 million towards new family group coordinators who will be specifically focused on youth crime issues. This was expected to fund an extra 350 conferences.
Family Group Conferences are formal meetings where the family comes together with professionals to talk about concerns Oranga Tamariki may hold for a child.
Police and Oranga Tamariki have also agreed to develop a protocol that will streamline the process of referring a young person to a FGC when warranted and to respond quicker when a young person has breached a Family Court order, Davis said.
“We know that these processes often reduce the chances of a young person reoffending and that’s what we know the general public want.
“When the Family Court has granted custody and support orders for these young people that include conditions to manage the risk of re-offending, we need to respond quicker to any sign that is happening – these protocols will do that.
“Making sure Police and Oranga Tamariki work together and have a clear process for when someone should or shouldn’t be referred to a FGC will help speed up the system and lead to better results for everyone.”
National meanwhile has called the policy package “panicked” given how close they are to the election.
“National has a fully-costed plan to establish young offender military academies that will provide serious young offenders with structure, discipline and rehabilitation, the Government has announced an uncosted plan,” said justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith.
“Not only does the Government have no idea how these facilities would work, but they do not even know when they would begin to be built.”
Police spokesperson Mark Mitchell also indicated they could be open to adopting Act’s policy to put 17 year olds back in the adult justice system.
“If the evidence shows clearly shows us that 17-year-olds are the aggravating factor, the ones that are causing the trouble, then any responsible government would have to have a look at that. But right now, we’re not that’s not our policy.”
Act Party leader David Seymour said he thought Labour’s policy was poll-driven and had not been properly thought-through.
“They’ve potentially seen polling such as the Ipsos issues monitor, which has taken crime from the fifth most important issue and voters mind to the second most important issue now 40 per cent, saying it’s the most important issue.”
Seymour said their plan was to build a new 200-bed youth justice facility at a cost of $500 million, with $44 million a year to operate them.
The party was also advocating for Corrections to take over youth justice facilities, and he was confident they could convince National 17-year-olds needed to be back in the adult justice system.
Act’s policy is that 17-year-olds should go to adult courts but not adult prisons, rather be kept in separate units.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson meanwhile accused Labour of entering the “tough on crime” debate.
She said politicians needed to be honest there are no quick solutions to crime.
“The two main political parties are trying to fight this on an unhelpful narrative around tough on crime.
“There are actually drivers of crime which neither of them are talking properly about. And that’s where the Green Party solutions are focused.”
She said more focus needs to be on community-led interventions and addressing the drivers of crime.
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s Lisa Woods said the new policies would not address the underlying issues that drive a young person to commit an offence.
JustSpeak executive director Aphiphany Forward-Taua said the plan for high needs units appeared to be an attempt to replicate the adult prison system.
“Youth justice facilities are not supposed to be prisons and young people should not be treated as prisoners.
“While some young people do need more intensive care and support to address harmful behaviour, this should be delivered as part of a model of care that is based on youth development best practice.”
Yesterday, Hipkins stepped into the law and order space with policies targeting youth offending, including making it an aggravating factor to incite or influence young people to commit crimes.
Those who publish recordings of unlawful behaviour on social media would also receive stronger punishments and would be considered by judges as an aggravating factor when sentenced. The National Party proposed a similar policy last month with a focus on videos being posted to social media of ram raids and other retail crime.
The Herald understands there will be further youth and crime policies unveiled this week by Labour ahead of its imminent tax policy.
Hipkins’ intention is to focus on “prevention, protection and accountability” when addressing young offenders, who have been committing high-profile and more violent crimes.
“Kiwis have had a gutsful of people thinking the rules don’t apply to them, and I have had a gutsful as well,” Hipkins said.
It comes as Hipkins has seen successive negative polls in recent weeks for the Labour Party.
Overnight, a 1News Verian Poll had Labour slip two points to 33 per cent and Hipkins slide one in the preferred Prime Minister stakes to 24 per cent - still ahead of National leader Christopher Luxon on 20 per cent.
The poll saw National also down two points to 35 per cent and Act up one point to 12 per cent, giving them 61 seats together and enough to form a wafer-thin majority of the 120 seats. It also showed a three-point bump for the Greens, up to 10, and one point to Te Pāti Māori, now on three per cent.
According to the Herald’s poll of polls - adding in data from the two latest polls - come election day a National-Act coalition remains the most likely outcome with a probability of 45.8 per cent - but this is down from 53.2 per cent a week ago.
It’s not all bad news for the left bloc, however, with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori looking to mop up some of Labour’s disaffected voters.
The probability of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori forming a Government together has increased from 34.1 per cent to 40.3 per cent.
Last night’s poll follows a Taxpayers’ Union - Curia poll last Wednesday that saw Labour drop two points to 31 per cent and Hipkins take a big hit as preferred Prime Minister, dropping from 29 per cent to 23 per cent.
Meanwhile, a Talbot Mills corporate poll last Monday saw Labour tumble five points to 31 per cent, its lowest rating in that poll since at least 2019.
Hipkins has said he was not concerned about losing votes to parties further left of centre than Labour.
He was also not concerned about what it could mean after ruling out a wealth and/or capital gains tax while leader.
“If they can get the majority in Parliament to pass that without the support of the Labour Party, good on them,” he said.
Meanwhile, embattled Labour MPs Kiri Allan and Michael Wood return to Parliament today.
Allan, who has retained her ministerial portfolios after historic allegations of misbehaviour in her office surfaced, and Wood, who lost his after the Auckland Airport shares debacle, have proved headaches for Hipkins in recent weeks and likely played their role in successive negative polls for the party.
Wood returns to Parliament this week after resigning as a minister in June when it was revealed he held shares in Auckland Airport - while he was Transport Minister - despite being told multiple times by the Prime Minister’s office he needed to get ride of them.
The Herald has been unable to make contact with Wood. Hipkins said on Monday he had not spoken to him about his future, but expected him to return to caucus today.
Allan has not accepted any requests by the Herald for an interview ahead of her return.
Allan took some leave recently to take care of her mental health and wellbeing, confirming her relationship had also recently ended.
At about the same time, some allegations were made about her behaviour towards staff over a year ago while she was Minister of Conservation.
She denied the allegations at the time but on Friday, after a meeting with Hipkins, accepted the concerns and apologised to anyone who found her behaviour towards them unacceptable.
Hipkins said on Monday he had assurances from Allan she was well enough to return to work.
They also had a conversation about the allegations.
“She’s issued an apology, she’s indicated that if anyone did find her, her behaviour too combative she’s issued an apology for that.
“She’s offered to meet with anybody individually who felt that way. So as far as I’m concerned, in the absence of formal complaints, that’s about as far as I can go.”
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