Webb DuncanHon Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Thank you Madam Chair and I do apologise for my mouth having said what my brain was thinking there. It was probably not appropriate to preface your own decision.But I do want to talk about my Amendment Paper G which is about youth offending because this is—and the Minister for Children was talking about her initiatives today in the House and it is a focus of this Government. There's nowhere where it's more important because we know that the earlier the intervention and the highest quality intervention the highest likelihood of there being a change of direction. So there are real concerns that when you get someone who's being sentenced for serious offending who is under the age of 18 years that you've really got to use every effort to make sure that all of the information is in front of the judge.Of course we know for a fact that a young person a person under the age of 18 years isn't going to have their own means. It's unlikely that they're going to be employed in any high-paying role or that they've got savings tucked away or anything of that nature. So my suggestion is that we make it clear that whilst this Government is going to defund these reports by and large there's a carve-out and there's a carve-out for kids because anyone under the age of 18 years at law is a child. They can't vote; no change there. So this is what this proposal would do.We know that those kind of whānau connections are particularly important and putting a child into a custodial setting even though—and I have been out to on a different occasion Christchurch Men's Prison which has a youth wing but it's still a prison right? Call it what you like but those 16- and 17-year-olds are in concrete cells and they're in concrete cells with other young people who are serious offenders. It's not a great place to put yourself on a track towards building a meaningful life outside of crime. So really good information about family about context about background if you can remember what it's for it's not just—and this is the really important thing. It's not just interesting background; it's about the triggers for the offending and how we can address that on the way forward. That nexus—and Justice Whata has been very clear about the usefulness of these reports that if they don't tie the offending to the context they're not useful. But for a young person that family context and the context of their wider network their cultural background what's happened to them in a family or other upbringing setting—that is a critical importance as having a nexus with the offending. So if we just carve it out just for young people so that where these things are the most valuable they're preserved; where they're most deserved they're preserved; and where they're most needed they're preserved.So Minister your Government's got a programme around youth offending—serious youth offending in particular. You know that the previous Government put some good initiatives in place around youth offending with significant interventions. You've got a Minister for Children who's talking about military academies as well as at the same time today I see on the Beehive website seeking further advice on serious youth offending. So here's an idea: let's keep one of the tools in the toolbox for judges so that we can help young people who do find themselves offending to mend their ways.