Shanks Katrina: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Shanks Katrina: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9006] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call tonight and support this bill in its Committee stage. One million New Zealanders gave this Government a mandate to do something about child offending in New Zealand. One million people in New Zealand decided that they had had enough of the child offending that was happening. The previous Labour Government had 9 long years and it could not address the issue properly—9 long years. [ 
Interruption 
] Those members say to move it forward. They had 9 long years to do something but they did not have any answers and they still do not have any answers. 
This Government is committed to every child having the opportunity to get back on track. This bill is about tougher sentences. This bill is about more programmes. In fact this Government has already committed $59 million to this programme. The previous Government was very good at having ideas but it never backed those ideas with any money. We have put $59 million on the table. There are 1000 positions in community youth programmes. There are 1232 positions for mentoring parenting drug and alcohol orders with funding of $9.4 million; 200 places for court-supervised camps with funding of $5.4 million; 205 places for greater Youth Court powers with funding of $9.3 million; 230 places for the innovation fund with funding of $4.6 million; 50 places for supervision with activity orders with funding of $15.5 million; and 40 places for military-style activity camps with funding of $5.3 million. That is $59.1 million. This National Government is committed to these children. 
The previous speaker Annette King said that there are only 40 children only 40 bad offenders. If one is a victim of one of those 40 bad offenders one wants something to happen. This Government is not about to say that those 40 children can just run around rampantly and reoffend because there are victims on the other side of those 40 offenders whom the member talks about. This Government is making a difference. 
The select committee process was interesting and many submitters came in. One of the key submitters was a young person from Young Labour who said that in 2007 Labour decided that youth justice was a priority. It took Labour a fair bit of time to realise that in 2007 we had a problem with youth offenders. We have had this problem for quite some time. Labour members have left their run to make youth offenders a priority a little bit late but that is what this Government is doing. 
At the select committee Judge Andrew Becroft was critical of how hard and complex the current system is to understand. He said that it needed to be simplified. He said that there is a lack of tools in the tool box a lack of long-term sentences and orders and a lack of resources and that there is no quantitative research. [ 
Interruption 
] He did say that because this is right out of his paper. He said that something needs to change and that is absolutely what this bill is about. This is what this Government is committed to doing. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight.