Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Mr Speaker is Invercargill the most dangerous place in New Zealand or is it actually an opportunity for collaboration community development investment and youth leadership?SPEAKER: I don't know. Would you like me to speak on that?INGRID LEARY: Well Mr Speaker if you'll indulge me I will help you unlock that. If you have been reading the Southland Times or the ODTor listening to Radio New Zealand you might be left with the impression that Invercargill is a very dangerous city; that there are kids running rampant; that they burn cars and they have standover tactics and they hang around in the mall some of them as young as 10 or 11. We've seen headlines actually from the Mayor of Invercargill wanting these children to be treated as adult criminals and actually he called a public meeting which I attended on Saturday night as the buddy MP.I wasn't sure what I was walking into because my electorate of Taieri is up the road and I was really concerned that I was going to walk into a massive problem of this huge youth problem. And indeed when people stood up there was a whole parade of people appointed from the panel handpicked in the audience to vindicate the mayor's stance that this is a very dangerous city and that these youth need real consequences. There were some harrowing stories. There were people who had had cars stolen set fire to and so on. And I don't want to diminish their angst. But the one good thing that happened at this meeting—apart from the fact that there were about 150 people so we had to move from a small room upstairs to downstairs where it was fuller—was that the mayor did let every single person that wanted to address the audience speak. And there was some incredibly rich and authentic and generous sharing that went on.What transpired was that there are many community groups there working with youth; that the Invercargill Initiative has shown that 23 percent of youth in Invercargill live in deprivation which is much higher than the national average; that there are parents who work multiple jobs who find it very difficult to be at home; and that there are intergenerational issues around parenting around violence around poverty. There are sports interventions where kids can go and play sport to keep busy but they happen to happen in the north of the city and where the kids in the south who are wanting to play sport would love to join in they can't afford the transport to get up there.There was only one youth voice in the room and that was a really brave young woman called Paige. She was challenged about what she said and she made the point that youth don't feel safe to speak in those spaces. Now I don't know if that's a general observation or if that's particular to that meeting and to the way it was set up by the conveners of the meeting but Paige insisted on evidence-based solutions. She talked about the link between the small number of people who commit youth crime and the high incidence of domestic violence and family violence. People spoke about the need for resourcing about making sure that we tackle family violence. There were issues raised around public cuts: how is this investment going to happen? How are we going to prevent youth offending when there are cuts to the Public Service? The point was made that the earlier children are put into the criminal justice system the more likely it is they will go on to become recidivist offenders.So as much as the council and the mayor and the local MP Penny Simmonds would love to have had a silver bullet to resolve this issue it is multifaceted. And the impression I was left with was that this is a community that really deeply cares about the issue. It was such a shame that there wasn't a safe space for youth to come in and contribute. But there are really active groups working there. There are churches. There were security guards. The council has said it is spending $2.2 million on security cameras. Paige made the point Why don't you put that into prevention? Why don't you put that into youth development?"It was a 3½-hour meeting in Invercargill. I got to learn a lot about the community. I got to learn about the diversity there the fact that people have families that have lived there for generations and that they are a community that deeply care. I'm so proud to be the buddy MP and I do hope that the next time this issue is reported on the reporters do listen to all the voices and not just take the easy line which is making the youth the fall guys for a problem that really belongs to the whole of our communities. This is a problem that's not going to go away quickly. I can feel the passion and the commitment from the community. I am there to work alongside them and I really look forward to seeing what steps we can make to ensure that everybody knows that Invercargill is a fantastic little city. Thank you."