National plans crack down on youth offending, including military academies

National has announced its plan to crack down on youth offenders - including those taking part in the scourge of ram-raids; a plan which includes the introduction of young offender military academies.

Leader Christopher Luxon said, “a ram-raid every 15 hours shows that Labour’s soft-on-crime approach is failing”.

He said National’s plan would both help keep the community safe and also help rehabilitate some offenders.

“No place is immune from the youth crime wave, but some are being hit harder than others.

For example, 20 per cent of all recent ram raids were in the Waikato. Gang membership in the Waikato is up 70 per cent over the past five years and gangs are recruiting nearly three times faster than Police.”Enough is enough.

My message to young offenders is that under National, you will face [the] consequences for your actions.”

National would create Young Offender Military Academies where offenders aged 15 to 17 can be sent for up to 12 months.

The Academies would “provide discipline, mentoring and intensive rehabilitation to make a decisive intervention in these young offenders’ lives. The Academies will be delivered in partnership with the Defence Force, alongside other providers”.

Participants on the Limited Service Volunteer programme in 2017. Photo / Michael Craig

Speaking to the media, Luxon said his colleague Mark Mitchell would be a much better police minister than Chris Hipkins. Luxon commended the police and the work they did but felt they had “one hand behind their back” without appropriate resources.

“When you see gang members acting with impunity and [police] can’t do anything about that ... that’s pretty demoralising. we have to get the balance right,” Luxon said.

Mitchell said it was important to show police officers they were backed by Government. He gave an example of a sergeant in hamilton who wrote to Mitchell, frustrated that they couldnt pursue youth offenders who had stolen cars and at one point the youths were driving straight at police, goading them. It wasn’t until the Eagle helicopter was available that couldn’t police were able to track the offenders, Mitchell claimed.

Luxon said he didn’t want to encourage people to take matters into their own hands with respect to crime but it was up to the Government to ensure people felt safe. He referenced conversations with Michael Hill Jewellers staff and how they had felt supported by the local community. Luxon said the matter was “urgent” and hoped the Government would adopt National’s plan.

Asked whether 10 was too young to be classed as a serious young offender, Luxon said he didn’t want young people to turn into hardened criminals.

He said the kids he was referencing were repeat offenders who hadn’t faced sufficient consequences.

Mitchell said the policy on military academies originated in 2017 and conversations with Defence Force officials at the time indicated National’s plan would be doable

Mitchell said he didn’t want to see 10 or 11yos in ankle bracelets but said a firmer response needed to be delivered for repeat offenders.

Ankle bracelets aren’t the panacea,” Mitchell said, noting bracelets could be removed. It was in response to a question about how ankle bracelets would achieve the result of keeping offenders in the community.

Luxon said we were talking about 10s of kids who were serious repeat offenders at the age of 10-14.

Paul Goldsmith said the reality was we can’t carry on as we are, claiming consequences for offenders weren’t evident.

Luxon said law and order would be a central “plank” for his party’s election pitch.

Asked if there would be trades training opportunities at the military camps, Luxon said there was disengagement within schools proved by truancy rates and literacy/numeracy levels.

Mitchell said there would be a vocational part of the military camp programme. When they finished their time in the academy, Mitchell said they would be “work ready” which would include trades.

On ram raiders, Mitchell said National was considering changes in relation to making sure police were working on the same platform to ensure a quicker response to crime.

Luxon said National was called the Opposition for a reason but he also wanted to be proposing ideas.

He claimed law and order shouldn’t be a political issue and should transcend parties.

“Success can have many fathers and mothers”.

His challenge to the government was to take this idea and run with it.

“Nothing is going to change unless they make some interventions”.