Jones Dail: Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Jones Dail: Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:14446] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 The previous National Party speaker in this debate will be sorely missed from the House. He gave a speech much more in keeping with the needs of children and young families and dealing with young offenders than the Minister. I had written the word “lacklustre” on my speech notes after listening to the Minister. Mr Sowry had obviously come to the same conclusion. It was not a very difficult conclusion to reach at all. 
This minority Labour Government is clearly coming to the end of its term of administration as a Government. It has no enthusiasm for children and young family work—none whatsoever. It was hardly even a bland speech by the Minister. He was bored to tears while giving his speech and he could not even stay in the House long enough to hear any sort of response from the Opposition. There was no enthusiasm whatsoever for what he had to say. As far as the next Labour speaker is concerned she merely read out a few departmental notes before she decided to vacate the House as well. 
I say to the Minister: what about doing something about Saliel Aplin Olympia Jetson Kelly Gush Coral Burrows—all the children who have suffered under her administration—and people likethem who will be coming before the courts if they are given the opportunity to live because of the poor family situations in which they are found? They will be up before the children and young persons and their families legislation before too long. This Minister just could not be bothered. She has no real enthusiasm for what she is doing either. 
What needs to be done in the area of youth justice is that young people and their parents must be made more accountable to the community for their crimes. We have to do something not only about dealing with young people but we have to do something about their families and their parents as well so they will have a wider degree of responsibility for the offences that are being committed. 
 New Zealand First’s view is that we will focus on entry-level crime in order to put a stop to young people entering a life of crime. We will lower the age of criminal responsibility and young offenders will be dealt with by the District Court and the High Court as opposed to just the Youth Court. Family group conferences are becoming a soft touch for young offenders and those who attend them. Along with staff of the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Child Youth and Family Services they go there and hold hands. That is just a soft sop to what is happening today. New Zealand First will make sure that the conferences remain available for those under the age of 14 years who choose to offend but even then offenders under that age will be entitled to be dealt with under this provision only three times—just three times. If they choose to offend again they will be dealt with by the adult criminal courts. 
Judith Collins 
: That’s our policy. 
DAIL JONES 
: That was our policy at the last election which I am repeating. I note from the comments made by Judith Collins that it is now the policy of the National Party as recently announced by Dr Don Brash. I thank the member for reminding me of that fact. 
New Zealand First will also provide the Youth Court with guidelines as to when anonymity of proceedings should be removed. We do not want anonymity of proceedings there; we want these young people to be responsible publicly for their misdoings and we will provide for the Youth Court to have guidelines as to when anonymity of proceedings should be removed in order to reinforce the offender’s accountability to the community. 
One of the important things in dealing with youth crime is prevention and one of the ways of preventing youth crime is to increase the drinking age again. That is our policy. It was our policy at the last election and we have maintained it. The drinking age must go back to 21 years because we have seen younger and younger people committing offences under the present rules governing the drinking age. New Zealand First will make it clear that violent young offenders should indeed be treated differently from non-violent offenders. 
Our attitude is quite different to those of this minority Labour Government which has no enthusiasm for dealing with young offenders. It just slaps them over the wrist and sends them on their way. We intend to be tough on young offenders. We will have the options of special secure training-order sentences involving supervised controls and intensive rehabilitation. That is the key in many respects—rehabilitation. It is all very well putting people in jail and it is all very well giving them parole but we have to make sure that a proper rehabilitation process and a relearning process is available to them. In certain circumstances we will have secure and even military training options. We have long maintained that view and we will continue with it. Also we will widen the range of offences for which youths are automatically subject to adult processes such as attempted murder aggravated sexual assault and serious repeat offending. 
If the Labour Party is serious about dealing with youth crime—I am talking about the choices available in respect of youth crime as mentioned in the introduction to this bill—then those are the sorts of things it should really be dealing with rather than pussy-footing around with measures as it is doing with this legislation. 
One of the issues when dealing with young offenders and locking them away is that they should be kept separate from adults—and that would be for quite a time as well. We have too many situations where not enough provision is made for young people to be kept separate from adults when they are locked up. That is a failing of the present system and it has been a failing for many many years. 
New Zealand First will support this legislation only to the select committee at this stage. We are hopeful that the Government might be encouraged to take a firmer hand with the support of New Zealand First in doing something more to prevent youth crime. Too often young people commit crime because they do not believe they will ever really have to suffer any particular penalties. Today some of them offend secure in the knowledge that after 10 years—thanks to Labour and the Greens—their crimes will be clean-slated and they will have no responsibility whatsoever for them. That is how soft this Labour Government is on crime. It is a sad day when we have no enthusiasm from this Government and its Minister for Social Development and Employment. He is filling in for the Minister of Justice who could not be here obviously. Neither was there any enthusiasm from the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment (CYF) Ruth Dyson in the area of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services where there are great tragedies. Of course as far as children and youth crime are concerned by the time those children commit the crimes at this level and rate at the ages of 12 13 14 and the like they are already well and truly on the way to a life of crime. Often it is part of the way they have been brought up—or have not been brought up as is the case with many of them—and they find themselves in difficulties. 
I would have thought we would hear more from the Minister in charge of the Department of Child Youth and Families Services about what is being done to prevent these types of things from happening. Rather we heard a rather bland boring speech being added to the Minister’s lack-lustre one. New Zealand First wants to make sure that young people are not totally dependent on benefits and the like and that their families are encouraged to get on with making a contribution to society rather than slipping away and being forgotten about as is the case under this minority Labour Government.