Mahuta Nanaia: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Mahuta Nanaia: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1453] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 I rise to oppose this bill on three particular points. The first point was well made by the deputy leader of the Labour Party Annette King. I say to Paula Bennett that purely and simply it is a matter of poor process. I say to the Minister that she will be developing policy that will affect the lives of a lot of children families and young people but to have a bill tabled like this with very little time for the Opposition to examine its pros and cons I think is poor form on her part and I am sure that that is not how she intends to go on. However we cannot support the bill on that basis. 
The second point concerns a lack of genuine input into the policy intent of the bill. When I look at the explanatory note of the bill I see the list of who has been consulted. Sure a lot of ministries have been consulted but what about the Office of the Children’s Commissioner what about Judge Becroft what about Judge Henwood what about the youth sector itself which can offer a lot of important points in this space and what about the community and voluntary sector also? They have not really been consulted or it is not demonstrated in the explanatory note that they have been consulted at all. 
On the third point I say—and it has been said again and again—that boot camps simply do not work. Let me explain that. In Hauraki-Waikato there are some really good examples of how a community—in fact how a region—is trying to tackle some of these very difficult issues and they are very difficult. I acknowledge the youth workers the social workers the community providers and the Maori providers who work in this space and it is a very difficult space to work in. Nobody can deny that when we are talking about the most difficult cases in our community we have to talk about a whole-of-Government a whole-of-community approach in order to be able to address these issues. Yes it does take a village to raise a child. 
If we look at Hamilton and at what is available—and I see my colleague Tim Macindoe over there—I note we have Te Hurihanga. That particular initiative emerged as a result of extensive work done through the Ministry of Justice with Judge Henwood. During the time when Phil Goff was the Minister of Justice there was input from community providers who were involved in the youth justice sector and input in terms of research for outcomes in this space. That led to the establishment of Te Hurihanga a residential facility. I see Mr Paul Quinn smiling there; he would not know about it because he has not visited it. The point of this—and Te Hurihanga does some very serious work with some of the most difficult children—is that the initiative provides wrap-around services for these children and their families to ensure that while intensive casework is done with rangatahi people are actually working with the whanau out in the community. We do not want to have a scenario where we are investing in these children and then they go back to the same old situation. 
That is also why boot camps will not work. In a controlled environment it is easy to ensure the outcomes we are expecting because it is a controlled environment. But when these kids go back out into their own communities where very little has been done with their families we find that repeat offences occur. I am sure members are aware of the work that John de Silva did on Great Barrier Island with families there because Child Youth and Family did a review of that initiative. Points will have been raised that although that programme in part was showing some very good outcomes with a little bit of military-style work being done there those kids were going back into communities where the same dysfunctional issues were happening. 
But let us go back to Hamilton because just across the road from Te Hurihanga is the Kauri Centre a Child Youth and Family - funded centre where young people go for educational programmes. The workers there will tell you that this centre is at the hard edge but it provides a space just before those kids could possibly go into the criminal justice system. Members should be under no illusion whatsoever: if we are to make a real difference with those kids we need to invest in the workers who work with them and we also have to have a wrap-around support network with those children’s families because multiple dysfunctions are occurring. 
I say to members to have another look at Hamilton and they will also find Te Rongoatea a drug and alcohol service funded by the Ministry of Health through the district health board. But the greatest irony for Te Rongoatea is that many of the referrals that go there are not local to that community. So I raise the question to Paula Bennett Minister for Social Development and Employment and Minister of Youth Affairs: will she be prepared to channel some of that funding she has tagged for initiatives to fund existing services in the community that provide an integrated network of support for young people and their families? That is absolutely critical and I know that community providers in Hamilton deserve that level of support because they are doing some very good things in that space. Let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Boot camps do not work in and of themselves and the Minister needs to have another look at that particular issue. 
I will also comment on the new sentencing order framework in the bill. Parts of this bill I think many members across the House might generally agree with but they are already happening. So the undertaking that I am really seeking from the Minister which was not so clear when she answered a question in the House is whether the Pathways to Partnership funding will be cut in preference to funding other initiatives. It is a very important question; it is one that many community providers and Maori providers are asking throughout a number of our communities. We would hate to see a number of those really good services which provide a network of integrated services cut solely to fund parenting programmes mentoring programmes and alcohol and drug rehabilitation programmes—albeit those programmes are important but not at the expense of other critical services provided in the community and voluntary sector. 
My message is quite clear: perhaps the Minister for Social Development and Employment should talk to the Minister of Education and the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector. I know that Hone Harawira knows the same communities I know and I know his communities; we have to invest at the front end. That is the type of change that the Labour Government was driving by investing at the front end—trying to keep our kids at school longer and making the education system and their learning environment more relevant to them. I urge Paula Bennett to talk to the Minister of Education to see what can be done at the front end to stop any of our kids having to end up in residential justice places and to see what more can be done there. That will make the critical difference to turn around a whole generation so that we are not building more prisons or residential centres as the National Government wants to do. 
When Labour was in Government we certainly did not want to send out that signal. We had some very difficult times because in my own community both Te Hurihanga and Spring Hill Corrections Facility were two facilities that met with a lot of angst from our communities. We do not want to go down that track. We want to turn the tide before it is too late but that requires investment at the front end. So I challenge the Minister to go into further discussions with the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector and the Minister of Education to see how we can put greater investment at that front end. 
The last point I will make and it is pure and simple is that the Minister has not looked at the obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. If she did she would clearly find that bringing 12 and 13-year-olds into the Youth Court system to be liable for prosecution totally contradicts that convention and our report will look woeful in November when the National Government has to report on its track record of what it is doing for young people. That is sad because we know that out there in the youth development sector a whole lot of youth workers and community and voluntary sector providers are doing very good things with young people trying at the front end—the hardest end—to deal with the issue. They know that yes it is difficult but boot camps are simply not the answer.